"Hillary Clinton's lead in the popular vote has surpassed 2.5 million votes, as the Trump transition team prepares for a new administration. The Democratic candidate for president has won the most votes in four of the last five elections, but won only two of those races. Since Ronald Reagan, the Democrats have won the most votes an unprecedented six out of seven times, but they stand today as the minority party at almost every level of government.

Although there are many factors, such as the relative organizational capabilities of the two parties and over-politicization of the redistricting process, a large part of the explanation rests in constitutional compromises that were made by the small, agrarian states in 1789, which do not comport with the facts of the 21st century. Although the mechanics of the original Electoral College gave the citizens in Delaware 1.6 times as much power as those in Virginia, then the most populous state, today the citizens of the least inhabited state, Wyoming, have 3.6 times the impact was those in the most, California.

The geographic maps developed after elections that often show a sea of red are very misleading. Today half of the U.S. population lives in just 146 of the nation's 3,056 counties. And that trend is accelerating.

]]>While many reporters will take extra precaution when reporting on areas of conflict, one journalist goes above and beyond to thoroughly cover even the most dangerous of places.

From Sarajevo to Aleppo, Afghanistan to Sierra Leone and Somalia, multi award-winning journalist and recent Fletcher graduate Janine Di Giovanni (F16) has reported on some of the most dangerous and conflict-ridden areas in the world. Most recently, Di Giovanni has focused on war-torn Syria, where she has completed many investigations into Syrian human rights violations - specifically rape and torture - receiving grants from the Nation Institute and the European Institute for Peace for this work.

“My goal is to bring a voice to people that are voiceless,” Di Giovanni said. Her tireless efforts to bring attention to the conflict in Syria have earned her an International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) 2016 Courage in Journalism award. The award was presented to her at both the Cipriani Restaurant in New York City on October 20, and at the Beverly Hilshire in L.A. on October 26. The award ceremony was covered by CNN and her work as the Middle East Editor at Newsweek and contributing editor at Vanity Fair was highlighted.

“I was truly humbled to get the IWMF 2016, Courage in Journalism Award…in the presence of some truly great journalists, policymakers, diplomats and human rights activists,” Di Giovanni said.

Di Giovanni attended the Fletcher School from 2015-2016 where she earned her M.A. in International Relations through the Global Master of Arts Program (GMAP).

"I honestly think I would not have the intellectual confidence to initiate the projects that I am now working on if I had not done Fletcher's GMAP. It stretched my cognitive abilities but it also honed me - made me more incisive, enhancing and surpassing my previous capacities. It made me feel that if I could do this - I could do anything. Incredibly empowering,” said Di Giovanni.

According to the International Women’s Media Foundation website, the IWMF presents the Courage in Journalism Award to those who report from areas of instability, oppression, and conflict, and who put themselves at risk to give us a window into critical global issues.

Covering international terrain and travelling to especially dangerous countries is nothing new for Di Giovanni, who has reported on conflicts across the globe for the past 25 years. While in Syria, she was often surrounded by locals – always without bodyguards or security. However, she feels as though this style of reporting allows her to connect more with her subjects.

During a recent interview with CNN, Di Giovanni stated that, “I started reporting on it because I believe it needs to be done, I believe there is a story there to be told. I see again a template of the war in Bosnia,” regarding the situation in Syria.

Di Giovanni is passionate about bringing attention to the area and even recently consulted with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the Syrian Refugee crisis. She has also worked alongside both the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Internews to consult on possible remedies to the issue, and writing crucial advocacy reports that were used at the highest level.

Much of Di Giovanni’s focus while reporting in Syria was on local women in the area and how the war is affecting them – largely in terms of sexual violence during war time and grievous human rights abuse. She tried to tell the story from the views of women on both sides of the war, striving to portray “their feelings, their sentiments,” she said.

Di Giovanni’s advice to women who are looking to follow in her career path is to “do your job - to be brave, to be courageous and to be kind.”

Her most recent book, “The Morning They Came For Us: Dispatches From Syria,” was published by Norton in March 2016, and so far has been translated into 17 languages. Di Giovanni is also the subject of a documentary currently available on iTunes, Googleplay or Amazon called “7 Days in Syria.”

]]>Diplomat Fernando Garcia Casas will be the new Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Latin America, replacing Jesus Gracia. Garcia Casas was ambassador to Estonia since September 2014 and has extensive experience in Ibero-American affairs.

The Council of Ministers approved on Friday the appointment of Garcia Casas, along with those of Jorge Toledo as the new Secretary of State for the European Union, and Pablo Garcia-Berdoy as permanent representative of Spain to the EU.

]]>Daniel Dolgin, F06, is now the co-owner of New York's first legal industrial hemp crop in eight decades. Prior to moving upstate to begin cultivation, Dolgin worked on counterterrorism for the Director of National Intelligence. Together with Mark Justh, the two have harvested more than a ton of hemp stocks for their first harvest this year. "We saw that there was this tremendous potential for hemp, it has 25,000 different usages" says Dolgin. Of course, Dolgin did not anticipate he would leave government to become a farmer, but when he realized this too was a business, he quickly changed career paths.

]]>Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Ph.D, F14, has been appointed as the Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, by United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. Palmer has an impressive resume with experience in global policymaking and environmental and sustainable development policies - in addition to business management, international negotiations, and environmental diplomacy.

]]>When Daniel Dolgin was working on counterterrorism for the Director of National Intelligence, he never would have believed that he’d soon co-own and -operate the farm cultivating New York’s first legal industrial hemp crop in eight decades.

Not only did Dolgin, 40, assume he’d have a future in the career he’d chosen and trained for at Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, but before 2014 growing hemp was illegal throughout the US.

He left government a few years ago for what he assumed would be a temporary hiatus to explore other opportunities. But when he was introduced to Mark Justh, 51, the haitus quickly turned into a whole new career direction.

]]>"The Obama administration’s decision to bring in 110,000 refugees next year, a small percentage of the overall immigration the United States will see from around the world, will benefit America in significant ways.

Refugee resettlement has played a valuable role in revitalizing towns and cities that have declined and stagnated economically. Contrary to anti-refugee rhetoric that shuns and maligns, refugees contribute to job growth, our economy, and our lives.

As a bellwether town for the impact of refugees on a local community, Lewiston, Maine, stands as an important national example. In 2001, Somali refugees from across the United States began arriving en masse, drawn by cheap rents and safe school opportunities. The mayor asked them to stop coming. “Our city is maxed out financially, physically, and emotionally,” he wrote in an open letter. At that time, similar to today, antirefugee rhetoric emboldened xenophobia. A white supremacist group came to Lewiston to protest what they considered an invasion."

]]>In a recent article, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, F73, discusses how politics of human rights claim-making is alive and well in the global South.

"Stephen Hopgood’sThe Endtimes of Human Rights by and Eric Posner’sThe Twilight of Human Rights Law have set off an important debate about whether human rights have run out of steam as a force for human progress. Other commentators such as Sam Moyn have argued that human rights no longer have the power to mobilize international condemnation and moral pressure against totalitarian regimes. Posner argues, for example, that the rapid expansion in the ratification of human rights treaties since the 1990s has had no impact on the respect for human rights. Further, since the end of colonization, human rights movements such as the right to self-determination, the civil rights act in the US, and overall equality in the US have run out of steam."

]]>Growing up in the Chicago area, MALD graduate Emily Bernard (F13) caught the travel bug at a young age after taking trips with her family and heading East for her undergraduate degree at Harvard University. As a freshmen at Harvard, Bernard wrote for the Let’s Go travel guidebooks, which are written and edited by Harvard students, and she was sent for 60 days through Southern France and Corsica to write about hotels and restaurants.

“That was my first entrée into this idea that you can be paid to do what you love and explore the world,” Bernard said.

Ever since her time abroad as a 19-year-old, she noted that her experiences following her undergraduate years have had a common thread: her passion for travel and hospitality. Even before deciding to attend Fletcher, Bernard felt connected to the community that shares a passion for travel as the alumni network helped walk her through the application process and programs, thus making it an easy decision for her.

“I was very impressed with how welcoming and helpful the alumni community was,” Bernard said. “That blew me away, as I hadn’t even been accepted at that point, and they were bending over backwards to support me.”

While Bernard was at Fletcher, she wrote her thesis under the guidance of Professor Carolyn Gideon on “nation branding,” a concept she was first exposed to in Gideon’s International Communications class. This is “the idea that countries can borrow marketing principles from the corporate world to position themselves in an increasingly competitive global economy; when it’s done right, it can have a significant impact on GDP.”

The former MALD student reflected on her time at Fletcher and how well it prepared her for her career experiences after graduating. Bernard identified four core takeaways from her two years on campus, which include the Fletcher network, a global perspective, problem-solving skills and time management skills.

“The network is arguably the most valuable thing you can get out of graduate school; it’s really about those connections you make, and I don’t think there is a better place than Fletcher to make those connections and to find a more diverse, interesting and wonderful group of people,” she said.

In addition, Fletcher has shaped her thinking and global perspective. “I think you think about problems very differently with a Fletcher education under your belt,” Bernard said. “You view issues and challenges very holistically…I feel very well-equipped to be in a leadership position [now] because I’m always taking a 360 degree view of my business.”

After Fletcher, Bernard worked at Foreign PolicyMagazine on the business side as the Vice President of the International Business team, correlating to her thesis work. In February 2016, Bernard decided to leave Foreign Policy to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity that combined her many interests.

The result was the creation of her travel website, PlacePass, which specializes in comparing and researching travel activities in more than 180 destinations to find the best price point and option for the customer. Bernard serves as co-founder and Chief Brand Officer.

“It came down to a passion for the space, as I absolutely love travel and hospitality; the feeling that I had the skills to do it; and the belief that my co-founder, Ethan Hawkes, was the right person to do it with,” she explained.

PlacePass launched in the summer of 2016, and has a small but rapidly growing team behind it; they’re looking to expand and offer internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate-level students. Over the past few months, Bernard and her team have enjoyed some early successes like the evolution of the PlacePass website and the ability to help support local businesses around the world.

“Many of the tours and activities that we offer are run by mom-and-pop operators or independent entrepreneurs,” Bernard said. “I love that the work is in some way contributing to the growth of local economies through tourism. On the customer side, I feel honored to help facilitate an experience that people wouldn’t otherwise be able to find,” she explained.

In addition, the company maintains a balance between the hidden gems, such as “mom-and-pop” tours, and main tourist attractions. For those wishing to partake in the latter, PlacePass has key partnerships with other companies for perks like “skip the line tickets,” which eradicate long lines and other hassles for customers.

The newest initiative of the business was inspired by “the gift of Fletcher,” which Bernard cited as “an understanding of creating purpose-driven organizations.” PlacePass has just partnered with EGBOK, a non-profit organization in Cambodia that trains underprivileged young adults to become hospitality industry leaders as it aligns with many of values that PlacePass fosters such as empowering women and hospitality.

“I’m very excited to create as part of the PlacePass brand a commitment to social issues that I feel strongly about and that make sense for the business,” Bernard said. The company will donate $1 USD for every tour booked on PlacePass to support students at the EGBOK school and training center in Siem Reap, up to $20,000 annually to help cover a variety of costs, such as school supplies and uniforms.

Offering a piece of advice to future grads, Bernard stressed the importance of having a rock-solid support system and once again credited her Fletcher network. “I am fortunate to have an incredible network of Fletcher women who are doing the most interesting things all over the world,” Bernard said with a smile. “They have 100% carried me through the last nine months [since starting company], in addition to my family and college friends.”

To learn more about PlacePass and future opportunities at the company, please visit: https://www.placepass.com

]]>

During his successful campaign for governor of New Mexico in 2002, Bill Richardson, A70, F71, H97, broke Theodore Roosevelt’s record for most handshakes by a politician, shaking 13,392 hands in eight hours.

Politics always comes down to people, Richardson told a Tufts audience on Nov. 2, during a panel discussion about governing and public service that was sponsored by the Tisch College of Civic Life.

"You’ve got to have the grassroots capacity to connect with people,” said Richardson, who also served as Bill Clinton’s energy secretary and as a U.S. congressman and ambassador to the U.N. “The way you get elected is if people trust you and like you. If it’s not genuine, you’re in trouble.”

]]>Marina Pevzner Hennessy, F06, used to be petrified of bees—but that was before she landed on a way to help villagers in Myanmar earn a decent living. Now residents of 30 villages in Southern Shan State, on the Chinese border, are earning up to $1,000 a year from the hives she has trained them to tend through Plan Bee, a project she founded in 2013.

The income villagers make from selling honey has had another benefit—it has reduced flight into urban areas, where migrants often end up living in slums, says Hennessy, who is the head of global partnerships at TAG International Development USA, a nonprofit that uses Israeli experts to help developing countries confront economic and other challenges.

TAG had run a similar beekeeping program in Vietnam, and thought it could fly in Myanmar, which already had a honey industry. The Myanmar project is supported by a multi-donor fund called LIFT that is managed by the United Nations.

]]>Louis Vachon, F85, currently serving as President and CEO of National Bank of Canada, was awarded the Global Citizens Award by the United Nations Association in Canada. This award recognizes Vachon's dedication and inspirational vision toward a better world for future generations. This award is one of various recognitions honoring Vachon's community and philanthropic commitment.

]]>The ongoing rapid changes in the Arctic pose significant dangers to its natural and manmade environments, and to the people who live there. To address these daunting challenges, a dozen graduate students from universities in the United States, Iceland and Greenland launched the Arctic Innovation Lab to identify possible solutions that could establish a sustainable and secure Arctic.

They pitched their ideas – from clean energy technology to science diplomacy – to a standing-room-only crowd at the recent 2016 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Dialogue about the Arctic often gets stuck discussing the dramatic challenges we face, with too little time spent on developing possible solutions. The goal of the Arctic Innovation Lab is to create a platform where students and young professionals can pitch and develop ideas and work with experienced practitioners. The Arctic Innovation Lab aims to facilitate an ongoing dialogue between generations to speed up knowledge transition and build capacity for the future of the Arctic.

In Reykjavík, the lab kicked off with a friendly competition. Each student delivered a two-and-a-half minute presentation to an audience that later voted on their favorite innovation. The student presenters then engaged in a dozen lively roundtable discussions with close to 200 participants about how best to move each innovatiive idea forward...

...Arctic residents (and others) will benefit from increased economic activity in the region, but the real impact will come from regional development. As a new step forward for the region, the Arctic Council, the Arctic Economic Council and the Arctic Coast Guard Forum should launch a partnership to coordinate a deliberate and methodical approach to advancing sustainable pan-Arctic infrastructure development. These three groups represent the right mix of expertise, resources and relationships to build a successful partnership. As Finland assumes chairmanship of all three in 2017, it has a unique opportunity to lay a strong foundation for the next chapter in Arctic and world history.

– Molly Douglas, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University...

...The Arctic Innovation Lab was the third annual event that the Environment and Natural Resources Program (ENRP) at Harvard Kennedy School’s (HKS) Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs has helped organize to provide an opportunity for students to participate in the annual Arctic Circle Assembly conference. The HKS Center for Public Leadership’s Bacon Environmental Fellowship Program co-sponsored this year’s 25-member HKS delegation. In addition to HKS, the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavík University, the University of Iceland, the University of Greenland, and the Fletcher School at Tufts University participated in the event.

]]>The pro-Russian stances of France’s fringe parties do not really come as a surprise: populists in the United States and Europe, from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to British politician Nigel Farage or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have voiced their admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The evolution of France’s main conservative party, the Republicans, which is currently leading the presidential race, is more puzzling, however. Some of its key leaders, including former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who in the late 2000s were seen as Atlanticists, now appear more sympathetic to Moscow’s positions than they were before. And this evolution comes at a time when diplomatic relations between Europe and Russia have deteriorated considerably over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Is it simply electoral posturing and opposition politics, or does it reveal a more profound shift? In any case,the Kremlin has happily fueled the fire through public declarations, sometimes implicitly taking up some of the arguments of France’s right.

The center-left government of Hollande, however, has started to fight back.

It had adopted a firm stance against Russia’s violation of international norms in Ukraine, notably bolstering the EU sanction regime and canceling the delivery of its Mistral warship to Russia while refraining from overly confrontational interactions with Moscow. But the tone between the two countries has significantly ratcheted up over the last few weeks, principally around the heavy bombings by Syrian and Russian air forces over Aleppo, which Paris sees as not only a moral but also a security issue since the bombings risk fueling radicalization and in turn increase the terrorist threat on its own territory."

]]> F07, currently a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, is researching fundamental aspects of what makes good government systems work and what we really need to make governments responsive to the people. She most recently researched the costs of campaign finance disclosure, asking "Are contributors more or less likely to drop out of the contributor pool in states that improved their disclosure?" Wood's current research explores the benefits of campaign finance disclosure.

]]>The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy hosted the Fletcher Ideas Exchange last night in the ASEAN Auditorium. It featured a variety of academics, policy practitioners and students who gave brief speeches in a TED-style format in front of an audience of approximately 200 people.

The event, themed “Bridging the Academic-Policy Gap,” opened with brief remarks from Communications Lecturer Mihir Mankad and Professor of Practice of International Conflict Management Eileen Babbitt, who both helped to organize the event.

Dean of the Fletcher School James Stavridis spoke first about his transition from the military to academia. He said that as the Supreme Allied Commander of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, he had consulted the academic world on a number of occasions.

He warned that the world of policy and the world of academia are frequently divided, with academics becoming increasingly specialized and policymakers constantly focused on moving quickly. Nonetheless, he said that he has found that many policymakers are interested in research.

]]>The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded President of Colombia and Former Fletcher Fulbright Scholar Juan Manuel Santos the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 on Oct. 7. Santos was awarded the prize for his efforts to end the country’s civil war.

“The president himself has made it clear that he will continue to work for peace right up until his very last day in office,” the Nobel Prize press release states. “The Committee hopes that the Peace Prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task.”

According to James Stavridis, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the school is pleased to know another one of its alums has received such a prestigious award.

“I was thrilled,” Stavridis said. “First for him, secondly for his nation, Colombia and thirdly for Fletcher because we’re very proud that he’s also … a former Fletcher senior fellow, and spent a year here with us at the Fletcher School.”

]]>Kate Brodock spent 10 years in Boston's tech startup scene. She grew up in Central New York and seven years ago moved back with a mission:

"I came back here to see what I can do for the region in terms of technology, in terms of entrepreneurship, in terms of innovation, in terms of putting the area on the map."...

...Syrcause.com: Let's talk about formative experiences. College?

Kate: I graduated in 2003 from the University of Rochester, majoring in political science and history.

They had a very strong music program because the Eastman School of Music was there. I was able to build on that area of my life.

Technically, I graduated in 2003, but I was only there until 2002. I moved to Boston in January 2003 because I didn't need any more credits.

In the 2002 fall semester, I was in Strasbourg, France, in a study-abroad program through Syracuse University. I wanted to get immersed in the culture. I lived with a French family, and they were awesome. They wouldn't let me speak English. It sounds cliché, but that was a formative experience.

S: History, political science, French – I don't think of those as springboards to a tech career.

K: When I graduated from college, I thought I was going to get my history Ph.D. I moved to Boston because I got a research position in Harvard's history department. It was part time – 15 hours a week – so I had to find another job to support myself.

I got a job in a tech transfer firm, in this little startup hub, right outside of MIT. It was run by two women who were MIT graduates. It was kind of a startup for startups.

We worked on technologies coming out of the startup space there and a few rejected by MIT's tech transfer office. We worked in a consulting role to get them to commercialization. That's where I got exposed to tech business and the startup life.

I liked it – a lot. I was still sort of interested in history and political science. So I applied to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

]]>A year ago today Gui Minhai disappeared while vacationing in Thailand. A Swedish citizen, Gui is one of five Hong Kong booksellers to have been abducted by China last year but the only one who remains missing. On the anniversary of his abduction, it is time to redouble the call for his release.

On January 17, he reappeared, in China, on State-owned television to deliver a forced confession. He admitted having fled China after a supposed hit-and-run in 2003. Chinese lawyers, however, have found no record of the conviction, despite legal requirements that such be public. He claimed he had returned to China willingly, refutable by the lack of official immigration records of him leaving Thailand. Puffy-eyed and struggling with the words, he went on to say he didn’t want help or legal counsel, a common refrain of forced confessions.

Broadcasting his forced confession denied his right to a fair trial, which the UN Human Rights Committee has held must be protected at all times. Treating the CCTV broadcast as a conviction in the court of public opinion, the government sought to not only deny him the right to a fair trial but to a trial altogether.

Following the broadcast, Reporters Without Borders called on the European Union to adopt sanctions against CCTV and Xinhua for ceasing to be news media and violating his right to a fair trial. The European Union passed a similar measure in 2013 against Iranian Press TV but there is no such political will to do so with CCTV, despite a rising trend in televised forced confessions from journalist Gao Yu to human rights lawyer Zhang Kai and others.

]]>In an interview with Bloomberg, Charles Dallara, F75, F86, Chairman of Americas for Partner Groups comments on the future of the Greek debt market, and opines that the Greek economy “needs room to breathe”.
Watch the full interview here. ]]>Over Columbus Day weekend, the Fletcher Arctic Initiative brought a group of students to Reykjavik, Iceland, to participate in the fourth annual Arctic Circle Conference. With 24 current students, five faculty members, and 10 alumni, Fletcher sent the largest non-Icelandic academic delegation for the second straight year.

During the three-day conference, the group had various exciting opportunities including, interacting with U.S. ambassador to Iceland Robert Barber, hearing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon speak and meeting with scholars, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and government officials from the Arctic nations and around the world.

The effects of global warming in the Arctic present a host of economic and political opportunities—as well as significant challenges. Plenary speakers and breakout sessions covered each of these issues and more, allowing students from a variety of programs to connect with each other and learn how the Arctic influences their own fields of study.

Faculty and staff from The Fletcher School, including Professors Paul Berkman, William Moomaw, and Rockford Weitz (F02, F08) coordinated, moderated, and participated in a number of panels during the conference. In these forums, they covered topics ranging from bluetech innovation to big data to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The range of speakers and topics covered at the assembly offered broad appeal to student participants. As Nicolette Roque (F17) said, the Arctic conference is “a unique opportunity that allows Fletcher students from across programs to focus on a single region with a wide range of issues.”

For Mike Thorgersen (GMAP17), currently working on a thesis on the economic and geopolitical importance of Greenland to the Kingdom of Denmark, the conference offered access to government officials. “I had the opportunity to speak with a former prime minister of Greenland, a Danish member of parliament, and the current minister representing Greenland to the United States,” Thorgersen said.

In addition to scheduled conference events, students were able to participate in several activities arranged by Professor Weitz, who directs the Maritime Studies Program. Notably, these included networking sessions with students from the Reykjavik University and Harvard Kennedy School delegations, a tour of the French frigate Languedoc, and a visit to the Iceland Ocean Cluster marine entrepreneurial hub.

Several students including Anna Ackerman (F17) and Max McGrath-Horn (F17) attended a dinner co-hosted by Guggenheim Partners and the World Wildlife Fund. “It was so exciting to see that partnership in action,” said Ackerman. “The Arctic is opening new possibilities for collaboration between private capital and environmental advocates.”

According to Professor Weitz, bringing a large group of students to the conference each year highlights The Fletcher School’s exclusive advantages in Arctic and Maritime Studies, which are perennial student interests.

“Boston has always been a maritime city, and it continues to be one of the most exciting places for maritime studies, industry, and entrepreneurship,” Weitz said. “Many of our students are interested in Arctic and maritime issues and bringing them to the Arctic Conference allows them to showcase their studies around experts, officials, and potential employers.”

For the 24 students who attended, the conference was an opportunity to become part of “the next watch” of people interested in the Arctic, as U.S. Special Representative for the Arctic Admiral Robert Papp said at the conference opening. The Arctic Circle Conference trip has turned into a welcome new tradition for The Fletcher School and has had a significant impact on many who attended: “It was the highlight of my time at Fletcher and a great way to form lifelong bonds with classmates,” said Nicolette Roque (F17).

]]>Arthur House, F66, who is currently serving as chairman of Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, was appointed as the state’s first chief cybersecurity risk officer by Governor Dannel P. Malloy. Under this new role, Dr. House will be responsible for enhancing Connecticut’s cybersecurity position and safeguarding the state’s cyber systems and critical infrastructure.
Read the full story here. ]]>Dr. Abi Williams was appointed the first President of The Hague Institute for Global Justice in 2013. From 2008 to 2012 he served at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, DC, first as Vice President of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, and later as Senior Vice President of the Center for Conflict Management leading its work in conflict zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq. From 2001 to 2007 Dr. Williams was Director of Strategic Planning for United Nations Secretaries-General Ban Ki-Moon and Kofi Annan in New York. He gained valuable field operational experience, serving with the United Nations from 1994 to 2000 in peacekeeping operations in the Balkans and Haiti, in senior political and humanitarian roles. He served as Associate Dean of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, and held faculty appointments at Georgetown, Rochester, and Tufts universities, winning several awards. Dr. Williams serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations including ACUNS, and the Netherlands Fulbright Commission. He has published widely on conflict prevention and management. He holds an M.A. (Hons) from Edinburgh University, and an M.A.L.D. and a Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

What do you consider the most exciting evolutions in international relations and politics?

I think the internet and social media have played a transformative role in international politics. On the one hand, more people than ever before are able to make informed decisions about the political, economic, social and cultural issues that affect their lives. Knowledge is power and the internet and social media have had a tremendous democratizing effect. On the other hand, we see terrorist groups making effective use of the same tools to spread fear, hatred and disinformation. I believe an important way to counter the malicious use of the internet and social media is to invest in creating positive narratives that unify, rather than divide people.

How has the way you understand the world changed over time, and what (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking?

It is my view that societies – and the world they form – can only truly thrive when justice and security work in tandem. Without justice, security is a chimera, and without security, justice can never be achieved. However, security and justice do not prevail through good intentions alone, but through committed action of individuals, organizations and states. Nelson Mandela demonstrated the importance of visionary leadership that can transcend old animosities and bring a suffering people to the negotiating table, even when painful compromises must be made. Mandela’s creed is compelling: that healing begins with forgiveness and that justice can prevail in even the darkest of places.

]]>In therecently published Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, F73, and her two co-authors use a Social and Economic Rights Fulfillment Index measure to assess how well countries live up to human rights standards. The book, originally published in 2014, was recently recognized as the 2016 Best Book in Human Rights by the American Political Science Association (APSA). In its Best Book in Human Rights Award Citation, APSA concluded that this book will be a “’must reading’ for all students of human rights, regardless of their level of expertise.”

]]>Where is Pakistan’s economy going? If you believe what the government has to say, then Pakistan is on the verge of takeoff. Multibillion-dollar investments in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, new LNG and gas pipeline projects, and an international bond market keen to lend money at record-low rates have indeed brought stability. Despite this progress, one cannot deny the reality that structural problems continue to paralyse and plague the economy.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2016-17, recently released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), paints a sorry picture of the economy. Ranked 122nd out of 138 countries, Pakistan is at the bottom in South Asia and behind countries like Mongolia, Nepal, Ghana, and Uganda. The report makes special mention of Pakistan, arguing that “since 2007, the gap between the best- and worst-performing economies in the region [South Asia] has increased…mostly as a result of the deteriorating situation in Pakistan”.

According to the report, Pakistan is “the only economy that fails to improve its macroeconomic environment and health and primary education levels”. While the country has advanced four places, the country’s score is still below the 2007 level.

]]>AFIO's Guide to the Study of Intelligence. This book, at almost 800 pages, is intended to help educators understand how intelligence has impacted history, how the various methods of collecting intelligence function, the relationships between intelligence and diplomacy, and analytical issues, to name a few topics. Former Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence Dr. Robert Gates contributed to the foreword, as well as Stephen Campbell, a former researcher at Fletcher, who contributed two excelled articles to the Guide. The book can be found and purchased here. ]]>The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people. The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process. This tribute is paid, not least, to the representatives of the countless victims of the civil war.

President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas, and he has consistently sought to move the peace process forward. Well knowing that the accord was controversial, he was instrumental in ensuring that Colombian voters were able to voice their opinion concerning the peace accord in a referendum. The outcome of the vote was not what President Santos wanted: a narrow majority of the over 13 million Colombians who cast their ballots said no to the accord. This result has created great uncertainty as to the future of Colombia. There is a real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again. This makes it even more important that the parties, headed by President Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, continue to respect the ceasefire.

The fact that a majority of the voters said no to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead. The referendum was not a vote for or against peace. What the "No" side rejected was not the desire for peace, but a specific peace agreement. The Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasizes the importance of the fact that President Santos is now inviting all parties to participate in a broad-based national dialogue aimed at advancing the peace process. Even those who opposed the peace accord have welcomed such a dialogue. The Nobel Committee hopes that all parties will take their share of responsibility and participate constructively in the upcoming peace talks.

President Santos attended The Fletcher School as a Fulbright Scholar in 1981.

]]>When Harry A. Radliffe II was growing up in Indianapolis, he’d disappear on his bicycle for hours, exploring the city’s neighborhoods. That wanderlust never left him. Radliffe, A71, F73, went on to become an award-winning television journalist and longtime producer for CBS’s 60 Minutes.

“Harry was a true journalist—he had a natural curiosity about the world,” recalls his friend and colleague Jeff Fager, the executive producer of 60 Minutes. “He just loved the adventure of getting out, helping people understand a story and living it at the same time.” Radliffe’s work resulted in scores of memorable segments for the TV newsmagazine—anyone who tuned into 60 Minutes during the 26 years Radliffe was there has undoubtedly seen his Emmy and Peabody Award-winning work.

His reporting always reflected his deep and nuanced understanding of world affairs, and he never forgot that his time at Fletcher helped set him on his career path. After he died of colon cancer in 2015 at age 66, his family and CBS News decided to memorialize him with a scholarship program. Each year, the Harry Radliffe II/CBS Endowed Scholarships will provide support for four students who are pursuing studies in news media, public diplomacy or digital communications through Fletcher’s Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World.

]]>“As Pope Francis was concluding the trip of the Caucasus, his last stop was the capital of the predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan. In Baku, the pontiff was received with full honors and welcomed by cheering crowds representing the nation’s small Catholic flock as well as more numerous Muslim and Jewish communities. While a papal visit to the once-Soviet Caucasus is significant in itself, visiting a modern, secular Muslim nation like Azerbaijan sends an especially profound message. Even more significant is the fact that this was already a second papal visit in Azerbaijan’s 25 years of independence: Pope John Paul II visited Baku in 2002.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev recognized the significance of the visit by describing it as “historic” and reiterating the nation’s commitment to upholding the long-standing traditions of inclusiveness and tolerance. Mr. Aliyev stated that Azerbaijan is proud to be home for its citizens of all faiths and to serve as “both a geographic and a spiritual bridge between East and West.” This sentiment was echoed by Pope Francis, who spoke of his joy seeing “the cordial relations enjoyed by the Catholic, Muslim, Orthodox and Jewish communities.”

Having celebrated the Holy Mass at Baku’s Church of Immaculate Conception, the pope visited the Heydar Mosque, where he met with Azerbaijan’s Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders. Symbolically, in one of the world’s few mosques, where Shia and Sunni pray side by side, Azerbaijan, true to its history, brought together people of different faiths to meet the pontiff. Perhaps, this is only natural as Azerbaijan was the first predominantly Muslim nation to establish a republic in 1918 and to grant equal voting rights for all its citizens, including minorities and women.”

]]>Today, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan appointed Vigen Sargsyan, who served as chief of his administration, as the new defense minister. Vigen Sargsyan (no relation to the president), 41, is replacing Seyran Ohanyan.

Vigen Sargsyan was born in 1975. In 1996, he graduated from the North-West Academy of Civil Service in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1997, he earned a master's degree in international relations from the Yerevan State University . In 2000, he graduated from The Fletcher School at Tufts University with a master's degree in law and diplomacy.

]]>Via digital technologies, Patrick Meier, F12, is improving humanitarian efforts every day. Most recently, Meier is focusing on the use of robotics, such as drones, to make crisis even more effective for disaster response.
Read the full story here. ]]>Muhammad Ali Sorcar has been appointed as the new Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Arab Republic of Egypt.

A career diplomat, Muhammad Ali Sorcar who is currently serving as the Ambassador of Bangladesh in Germany, belongs to the 1986 batch of BCS (Foreign Affairs) Cadre, a Foreign Ministry press release said Tuesday.

Apart from his ambassadorial assignments in the Netherlands and Germany, Sorcar, a specialist in the multilateral arena of diplomacy especially on UN System, also served as Deputy Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN in New York and Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels.

He holds an MBBS degree from Mymensingh Medical College and a Masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy from the Tufts University in USA.

]]>Nelson Madden Black LLP, co-founded by Jonathan Nelson, F82, launched today. The new firm is the first private law firm based in New York - and one of only a handful nationwide - that is specifically dedicated to the legal representation of religious institutions and individuals.
Before the launch of Nelson Madden Black, Mr. Nelson – along with co-founders John Madden and Barry Black – spent decades separately contributing to religious life in New York and shaping the law affecting it, including advising on issues ranging from the termination of clergy to church lease negotiations to the victimization of a congregation in a mortgage-fraud scheme. Their clients have included Hindu temples, Christian ministers, rabbis and cantors, Muslim refugees fleeing religious persecution, and major evangelical organizations.

Mr. Nelson graduated from Yale College and Northwestern University School of Law before receiving his degree from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1984. After practicing corporate litigation and financial transactional work with major law firms in Chicago and New York City, Mr. Nelson established an independent law office in 1991. Over the next twenty-five years, he represented or advised hundreds of clients in the religious community, including Christian churches of many kinds, a religious order, Hindu temples, Jungians, a Yoruba cultural center, mosques, pastors, church trustees, missionaries, and victims of religious persecution seeking asylum. Mr. Nelson has been listed in SuperLawyers since 2012, and has been rated “AV Preeminent” since 1998.

]]>“In the wake of the Uri assault that took the lives of 18 Indian jawans, Indian commentators have been in understandable outrage, suggesting various rather dramatic courses of action against Pakistan — ranging from “surgical strikes” against terrorist training camps in PoK or even at Muridke near Lahore, to the abrogation of the Indus Waters Treaty to bring the Pakistani economy to its knees.

Yet, the unpalatable truth is this: India has a number of options — diplomatic, economic and military — but most of the feasible ones have been tried before, notably in the aftermath of the major terrorist attack on 26 November 2008 in Mumbai.

The ones that have not been tried — notably reprisals on terrorist bases in Pakistan —are fraught with major risks, notably of escalation, with unpredictable consequences. There are few realistic and effective options for retaliation left.”

]]>Zainah Anwar, F86, co-founder of Sisters in Islam, a civil society organization working toward promoting the rights of women within Islam, delivered a speech at the Malaysian Bar’s International Malaysia Law Conference on September 21, 2016. Her speech is described as brilliant, and an inspiring reminder of the hard struggle facing women in Malaysia and other Muslim counties in their desire for justice in Islam. Her focus emphasized the role that religion should play in the quest for human rights and justice.
Read the full story here. ]]>Brilliantly simple career advice from successful female entrepreneurs: These inspiring SELF-made women know a thing or two about success. Here are their secrets.

Danielle Weisberg (F08) and Carly ZakinThe two former producers for NBC News partnered up to launch theSkimm, an email-based news delivery service.

Our Advice "People say, 'Be open to everything.' We follow a different trend: Say no—a lot!" says Weisberg. "It's how you focus and reach important milestones when you don't have a lot of resources," adds Zakin.

How We Made It Happen "Don't take no for an answer. There's obviously a fine line between being annoying and showing you can hustle and it's important to know that line. But we got turned down over and over again. Whether it was meeting with people who had been inspiring to us or fundraising for the first time, we heard no again and again. That's something you have to respect, but you need to know if you're a person who says 'Ok, I tried and it didn't work' or if you're going to do it no matter what," says Weisberg.

What We Look For In Employees "We hear all the time from people who want to go straight to a startup, but we both think it's really important to first have experience from a larger environment. That's where you learn how to be a professional," says Weisberg. "The foundation of our company is that we are a news organization, [which involves] journalistic integrity and ethics. That's not something you can wing."

My Mantra "Timing is never perfect; be ready to act! I walked away from a doctorate program to start Andela, because when my cofounders and I came up with the idea, I knew it was what I had to do."

What Sets Us Apart "We outcompete through diversity. At Andela, we set out with a goal of having 35 percent female software developers, which is an audacious goal. And it's part of the value proposition that we offer to our clients. Usually you have a team of largely male, white developers who come from a similar background. But our people are experts in emerging markets and they're going to approach problems in different ways. They're going to consistently look to problem-solve and add value from a different perspective."

My Advice "Fiercely protect the culture of the company you want to build. You can write down what your company's ethos is but unless you live it, unless you really protect it every day that will not be it. Culture is in the air—it's the unwritten rules. As the leader of the organization, if you don't stop and pick up that trash, no one is going to. If you don't take the time to say something respectfully even when it's hard, no one else is going to. You have to be the protector of the real culture that you think is necessary to help your company succeed."

]]>Jeremy Rifkin, F68, said that Catalonia can “lead the way of Regional Europe” to the so called ‘Third Industrial Revolution’. Rifkin’s theory claims that the crossroads of the ‘Technology Internet’ and renewable energies will create a new and powerful Third Industrial Revolution. During his lecture at the conference organized by The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia, a city near Barcelona, the economist maintained that the self-production of energy and a collaborative and sustainable economy constitute the only mechanism to fight climate change and face the end of fossil fuel era.

]]>Neil Smit, F88, is the current President and CEO of Comcast Cable. Smit, who has an extensive background in communications and media, has been appointed as chairman of the C-SPAN board executive committee. C-SPAN is run as a non-profit with a board comprising top cable executives who rotate on and off an executive committee.
Read the full article here. ]]>The launch of Josy Joseph’s A Feast of Vultures-The Hidden Business Of Democracy in India, at Atta Galatta, was no ordinary event. It had the audience at the edge of their seats. An award-winning investigative journalist and at present, National Security Editor of The Hindu, Josy, whose investigative stories include the Adarsh Apartment scam, Naval War Room Leak case, the 2G spectrum allocation scam, among others, took us through his dedicated work of unearthing stories from the underbelly of corruption. He was in conversation with civic analyst and urban expert, V. Ravichandar, who said: “The book has all the makings of a thriller. It is like a Google map for the labyrinth Indian system.”

The book is divided into three parts: The Middlemen, The Very Private Sector, and The Big League. While elaborating on the first section, Josy says: “All of us are middle-men because is the system is corrupt and convoluted.’’ As city dwellers, there are few things we know about our villages. “The distance between the citizens and the ‘sarkar’ is huge,” he observed. In these circumstances, the ‘naya netas’ are the face of the Government for villagers, as reflected in the book. “As an urban elite, we do not understand the plight of villagers. In cities, we are used to a bottom-up system,” Josy said, adding: “The term ‘naya netas’ was coined by Anirudh Krishna. These naya netas wear white kurta pyjama, travel on bikes, get welfare for the people, and feed the money to political system. They also have political ambitions. They enjoy immunity as well,” said the author, who holds a Masters in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; and Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Kerala University.

The conversation then veered towards ‘The Mighty Typist’, which includes legendary stories on R.K. Dhawan, the personal assistant to Indira Gandhi. One of the sensational stories in the book is of the murder of an airline tycoon in the 1990s. But the case was hushed up, to encourage the rise of a leading rival airline. Josy added that defence is a flourishing sector. As Ravichandar pointed out: “Defence deals have been important feeders for the Government.” With Josy adding: “For example, Bofors, which if compared to deals today is peanuts.” They then discussed notorious arms dealer Sudhir Choudhrie. “He even has a chair in the University of Columbia named after him.” The conversation turned to mining barons, who are corruption personified. “Where they do business, they are unbridled in making profits,” said Josy.

]]>“For more than a year, Donald Trump has been raising an alarm about the upswing of terrorism in the United States, promising to address it head-on without any of Washington’s usual political pieties. Jargon-laden responses to terror attacks from the White House and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign only tend to confirm Trump voters' worst fears about the Washington establishment, rather than build support for the Obama-Clinton approach to fighting the Islamic State terrorist group.

On Saturday a pressure cooker bomb detonated in a Manhattan dumpster, wounding 29. A second device was found blocks away and disarmed. This followed a pipe bombing that morning in Seaside Park, N.J., targeting the Marine Semper Fi 5K fundraising race. Fortunately, only one bomb detonated and no one was harmed.”

]]>An anticipated meeting between the Iranian Foreign Minister and his American counterpart - possibly the last before the advent of a new and possibly more hostile US administration in Washington - in the upcoming session of the UN General Assembly, offers Iran one last opportunity to prevent outstanding US-Iranian differences from derailing Iran's plans for its economic rejuvenation and reintegration into the world economy.

Western reactions to continued economic uncertainties, exacerbated by high levels of migration and terrorist attacks by radicalized Sunni Muslims, resemble the kind of negative narratives not witnessed since the 1920s. Those events ultimately eased the way for the election of anti-democratic and Fascist forces in Italy and Germany who subsequently drove the entire world to another catastrophic war.

Today, an increasing number of populist politicians in the West are resorting to provocative anti-Islamic language, often also directed against Iran, in promoting their agendas. This is irrespective of the fact that neither Iran nor Shia Muslums have played any role in the recent murderous attacks that have shaken a number of Western cities.

]]>Sean Callahan, F88, has worked for CRS for the past 28 years, the last four of which he served as Chief Operation Officer. He also headed CRS’ Nicaragua program and East India office, was director of Human Resources and, from 1998 to 2004, was regional director for South Asia. Callahan will take his new office in January, 2017.

]]>Farah Pandith (F95) participates on a CNN panel on remembering the tragic events of 9-11. She discusses how she saw 9-11 as a call to service and its impact on the world 15 years later.]]>"History," it has been written, “does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Today it’s rhyming with Gen. Billy Mitchell. In the 1920s, Mitchell challenged conventional thinking by advocating air power at sea in the face of a naval establishment dominated by battleship proponents. The hubris of the “battleship Navy” was such that just nine days before Pearl Harbor, the official program for the 1941 Army-Navy game displayed a full page photograph of the battleship USS Arizona with language virtually extolling its invincibility.

Of course, the reason that no one had yet sunk a battleship from the air - in combat - was that no one had yet tried. In fact, Mitchell sank a captured German battleship, the Ostfriesland, in an aerial demonstration back in 1921, but the Navy said that the test proved nothing. Two of the observers that day were officials from Japan. In addition, the architect of the Pearl harbor attack, Isoroku Yamamoto, was a student at Harvard at the time and no doubt read accounts of the event that were widely reported in the newspapers.

The aircraft carrier decisively replaced the battleship as the Navy's sea control capital ship, but its reign in that capacity was, in reality, quite brief. The aircraft carrier established its ascendancy in the Battle of Midway and was the centerpiece of five major sea battles between 1942 and 1944.

]]>Picture this: 10 tons of maize grown by 8000 different smallholder farms in Rwanda, all trying to get to market in Kigali. The challenge? The crops are here; the markets are there. Lack of access to reliable, efficient, and transparent transportation means farmers struggle to get their goods to customers. Spoilage, delays, and lost shipments all come at great costs.

Co-founded by Fletcher alumnus Charles Dokmo (F’14) as part of a team of supply chain engineers from MIT, Kumwe aims to create a ground transportation brokerage to serve as “the connective tissue” between shippers, including farmers and transporters. The brokerage is intended to ensure professional, reliable and affordable freight transportation, all while lowering costs and improving efficiency in getting goods to markets for small farmers and other shippers.

Back in the summer of 2013, Dokmo completed aBlakeley-funded summer internship in Chad following his first year as a MALD student. “This is where I experienced first-hand the challenge of last-mile distribution,” said Dokmo. “I was helping a small biomass charcoal and cookstove pilot project become financially sustainable when I discovered the largest barrier to profitability was a lack of predictable, affordable transportation.” This sparked the idea of Kumwe, which turned into a reality after Dokmo graduated from Fletcher.

Kumwe’s role of middleman between shippers and transporters in the fractured environment that currently exists in the Rwandan shipping industry caught the eye of The Fletcher D-Prize. Seeking to take proven poverty solutions and improve their reach, The D-Prize specializes in distribution innovation. As a winner of 2016’s Fletcher D-Prize, Kumwe received $10,000 to pilot this transportation brokerage in Rwanda, which, if successful, would represent a major shift in the distribution models available in East Africa. As a result, this would improve not only the financial well-being of farmers across the region but also get needed agricultural products to market.

Unusually high freight costs and disjointed transportation markets have consistently hurt both farmers and consumers. But despite these costs – partly borne by the farmer, decimating their profits – the Kumwe team noted that for many, cost is merely a secondary concern, trailing far behind reliability.

In Rwanda, the issue is not with the infrastructure – as Dokmo’s Kumwe co-founder Cyril Khamsi joked, “the roads are better than many in Boston,” but with the relationship between farmers and transporters. Seen as a mere transaction, there is little in the way of repercussions for bad service from the transporter. By using a brokerage model, poor service can jeopardize future business for transporters. Instead, they are incentivized to improve reliability, while the farmer realizes efficiency in limiting spoilage and increasing profit margins.

“We hypothesize that issues of cost transparency, lack of access, and poor asset utilization have served as barriers to small business growth in East Africa,” Dokmo said. “By addressing these structural barriers we hope to eventually help remove the roadblocks preventing poor entrepreneurs from growing their businesses.”

Kumwe piloted its brokerage with 20 independent providers over the summer with the aim to grow to 100 providers within a year. Starting with a simple brokerage model, the goal is to move to a technology platform – utilizing SMS, GPS, and eventually even an app that can serve as Uber for East African freight and cargo – once the basic service model is proven.

Results to date are very promising: Kumwe has hired two local employees on the ground in Rwanda and scheduled 22 deliveries. The team is also preparing to launch a pilot with the One Acre fund (https://www.oneacrefund.org/). They have added seven verified transporters to their database and, operating a bidding system, have been able to beat market price by 35% in their early efforts.

After gaining some early traction through the pilot, Kumwe is well on its way to reach their lofty goals. “We aspire to enable economic growth by providing a sustainable, easy-to-use service platform for buying and selling freight transportation of all scales,” Dokmo said. “In the long term, we hope to improve the stability of the transportation system in Rwanda and beyond.”

So what would you do with $20,000 to fight poverty? If you are inspired to make a difference, test your entrepreneurial skills, and help alleviate poverty with a proven poverty solution, please check out the 2017 Fletcher D-Prize. Fletcher students, alumni, and Tufts undergrads (with a Fletcher member of the team) are invited to pitch their ideas to the D-Prize venture capitalists.

Editor’s Note: Help kick off this year’s D-Prize competition on Wednesday, September 21, 2016, with an interactive session with D-Prize Co-founder Nicholas Fusso and Rocky Weitz, Entrepreneurship Coach in Residence.The deadline to submit concept note is Monday, November 7that 11:59pm For more information and application details, visit the D-Prize website: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/D-Prize

]]>Hassan Abbas, F02, F08, has been chosen as one of four Carnegie Fellows at New America 2016-2017 to work on a book project. He will write a book about Islam's internal struggles and spirituality as observed during his travels to sacred Muslim sites and shrines in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, India, and Pakistan. He is currently a professor and department chair at National Defense University's College of International Security Affairs in Washington D.C. Read more about Hassan here.

The 2017 class is the largest and most competitive class in New America's history. The New American Fellows program supports thinkers - journalists, producers, practitioners, and scholars - whose work enhances the public conversation about the most pressing issue of our day. Read the full article here.

]]>Roberta Jacobson is the current U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and the former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. A graduate of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Jacobson led a U.S. delegation in talks with the Cuban government to renew diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States earlier this year. She spoke at The Fletcher School’s convocation ceremony on Sept. 9 about her experiences as a student at Fletcher, touting the student body’s diversity and its extensive ties to Mexican diplomacy. Jacobson also touched on the shared diplomatic interests of the United States and Mexico and the importance of maintaining positive U.S.-Mexico relations. Finally, she urged Fletcher graduates to take advantage of the connections and opportunities that come with having graduated from Fletcher. The Daily spoke with Jacobson about her talk, her professional goals and her time at Fletcher.

Tufts Daily (TD): What were some highlights of your time at Fletcher?

Roberta Jacobson (RJ): Well, there was a professor working at Fletcher, an Australian human rights expert named Philip Alston … who was completing a book on the [United Nations’] (UN) human rights organizations … I had worked on a committee on the elimination of discrimination against women when I was at the UN. He asked me to write the chapter [of his book] on that entity. So when he published the book, I had a chapter in a university press book, and that was an opportunity with a Fletcher professor that I was lucky to have. I took that book with me everywhere to show people. It was one of my first published works.

The other thing that stood out for me was looking at liberation theology as a revolutionary ideology in Latin America for my thesis. I was taking a security studies course at Fletcher, which was [taught by] a very conservative group of people. When I worked on this, [my professor and others in that department] believed that liberation theology was manipulated directly [by the Soviet Union]. But as I worked on the paper, I came to the conclusion that … [liberation theology] was indigenous, homegrown and grew out of a lot of inequality. I basically proved the opposite of what was forecast and thought … I felt perfectly comfortable challenging what we both might have believed in the beginning. That’s a very valuable experience. It speaks to the feeling of academic independence at Fletcher.

TD: The majority of your career in the State Department has focused on U.S.-Latin American relations. What made you want to work in that area?

RJ: When I knew I wanted to do political science and international affairs and had to pick a region, there was a lot happening at that time in Latin American political science. From ’78 to ’82, it was the start of the return to democracy from military governments [in Latin America], and politicians and citizens were working to get the military out of politics. So I became fascinated by [the region], both because of the human rights angle but also because in so many respects, it was a political science laboratory … So the place just drew me for the political side and human rights aspects, but I also loved the culture of it.

Roberta Jacobson, renowned US diplomat and current ambassador to Mexico, was the guest of honor at the ceremony to welcome the new students of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University on Friday September 9 in the Asean auditorium.

"As a former student of this school, I'm excited to be here in Boston," Jacobson said. "People think it's a bad time to be ambassador to Mexico. I think the opposite. This is one of the best times to hold that office. If we do not defend and correct misinformation and misunderstanding, then we're stuck."

In May 2016, Jacobson was appointed US ambassador in Mexico. "For me it was a surprise," she confessed in a later interview with The Planet. "But I love Mexico and it is an excellent time for this position."...

...Recently, Jacobson led the effort of the Obama administration to reestablish relations with Cuba.

Jacobson received a Masters of Art in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School and a BA from Brown University. She worked for the United Nations between 1982 and 1984, at the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs.

]]>Franklin County native Adam Hinds easily won a three-way Democratic race for a state Senate seat in Thursday’s primary election, beating Richmond attorney Andrea Harrington and Lenox attorney Rinaldo Del Gallo with about 55 percent of the vote to their 38 and 7 percent, respectively.

He will face Republican candidate Christine M. Canning, a Lanesborough educational consultant who was unopposed on the GOP ballot, in the Nov. 8 election for the seat being vacated after 10 years by Sen. Benjamin Downing, D-Pittsfield....

...Hinds, 40, the executive director of Northern Berkshire Community Coalition in North Adams, is a graduate of Mohawk Trail Regional High School, Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He touted nearly 10 years of negotiations experience working for the United Nations in Iraq, Syria and Jerusalem as a strength he would bring to the post.

Over the past year, he has led the coalition to provide family and child-support services and engage residents, organizations and officials in responding to issues such as health-care access and fighting heroin addiction. He has also administered a Pittsfield gang-prevention program targeting at-risk youth.

Hinds worked on U.S. Rep. John W. Olver’s election campaigns and on John Kerry’s presidential campaign. This is his first campaign for elected office, as it was for Harrington.

]]>Jonathan Potter, F91, was Executive Director of People In Aid and, after the creation of the CHS Alliance, became Executive Director of Qatar Charity UK.

You can't always recruit the expats you want for an emergency response. Maybe the right skills can't be found; visas aren't available; people need a break; expats don't speak the language; lots of reasons. The solution is often right in front of you: experienced national staff, often working for national NGOs. Why would you hesitate in recruiting them? Commitment 4 of the Charter4Change doesn't say an INGO, a Red Cross or the UN shouldn't recruit staff from local NGOs; it is encouraging us all to prevent the negative impact of doing so, to prevent reducing the short- and long-term capacity of the national NGO.

Such recruitment affects individuals as well as organisations, but there are ways to reduce the impact. On individuals, I remeber well the conclusion of a conference organised by Africa Humanitarian Action which I attended in the early 2000s: National NGOs didn't want to lose their staff to INGOs, RCRC and UN, but it wasn't for the NGOs to prevent those staff furthering their career and earning more for their families. We all want to put affected populations at the centre of our work and national staff are often a part of the affected population. Even if they aren't, then good management practice, as well as humanity, suggests that individual staff interests should come home before those of both NNGOs and INGOs/RCRC/UN.

]]>Al Qaeda's hijackings in this black September awoke wrenched America from a halcyon "holiday from history" derided by many like former CIA Director James Woolsey. While many who have come of age since 9/11 condemn an ensuing "endless war," he complained that his commander-in-chief, President William Clinton, payed little attention to national security. Yet his notorious playboy manners inside and outside of the Oval Office seemed to befit the relative peace and prosperity of the long decade from the Berlin Wall's fall on 11/9/1989 to 9/11/2001.

Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, was thankfully made of sterner stuff for what would soon be sterner times, but history would pass critical judgment upon his neo-Wilsonian strategies for dealing with the Islamic world's various dangers. Perhaps giddy with American "hyperpower" in a historic "unipolor moment," this evangelical Texan sought to replicate Republic icon Ronald Reagan, whose Cold War defeat of Communism liberated millions. Efforts to extend a Kantian zone of peace would attract supposedly huddling Muslim masses yearning to breathe free away from the poverty and perils of dictatorships and religious fanaticism.

]]>The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University is honored to announce that Roberta S. Jacobson (F86), U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, will speak at the school’s convocation ceremony on Friday, September 9.

The Ambassador will join Admiral James Stavridis, Dean of The Fletcher School; Antonia Handler Chayes, Professor of Practice of International Politics and Law and recipient of this year’s faculty research award; and other members of the Fletcher community to officially kick off the school year.

The ceremony will take place at 2PM in ASEAN Auditorium, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Ave., Medford, MA.

Ambassador Jacobson was sworn in as ambassador on May 5, 2016. She formerly served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, where she is credited with negotiating the deal that re-opened relations between the U.S. and Cuba. She has held various positions in the State Department’s Western Hemisphere Bureau for nearly 30 years. The Ambassador holds a Masters of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School.

Members of the media interested in attending are asked to RSVP to Juli Hanscom by Wednesday, September 7.

]]>Intellectual property rights date to ancient Egypt. In an inscription on a rare Egyptian tablet from 2000 BCE displayed at the Louvre in Paris, Irtysen, a master craftsman, scribe, and sculptor, boasts about his trade secrets. How would he maintain ownership of his techniques and make a decent living in today’s digital world?

Technology occupies us in ways that would baffle Irtysen. Rush hour subway riders swipe and text away while digital music blasts through their earphones. Whether they’re consuming this music legally or illegally, who knows? What’s clear is technology makes it easy to copy and transmit creative work: capture and share are the order of the day.

When Apple’s iTunes debuted in 2001, it ushered in the cheap digital single. In about a decade, music sales plunged to $7.1 billion in 2012 from $11.8 billion in 2003 (Covert, 2013). At the same time, world trade in creative goods and services totaled a record $624 billion in 2011, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. To protect creative workers’ incomes and boost creative economies, protection and fair compensation are essential.

Digital music generated more revenue than physical formats for the first time in 2015—it was up 3.2 percent to $15 billion, the industry’s first significant year-over-year growth in nearly 20 years (IFPI, 2016). The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) notes that digital revenue rose 10.2 percent, to $6.7 billion. A 45.2 percent rise in streaming revenue more than offset fewer downloads and physical sales. This is welcome news. But the industry is trapped in a so-called value gap—a mismatch between music that makes money and a lot that doesn’t parlay into meaningful revenue for artists and creative businesses.

If developing economies could reap earnings from their cultural wealth it could unleash development, help solve youth unemployment, and promote diversification. But piracy, endemic in both developing and developed economies, poses a threat.

On Tuesday, August 30, Mark Zuckerberg had the opportunity to visit, Andela, in Lagos, Nigeria. Mark and Priscilla are inspired by Andela and organizations like it around the world that are working to develop talent and help all people reach their potential. “You are a part of something that is really important and I thank you for that,” Mark shared with Andela developers and staff.

]]>Reported earlier in The Diplomat, it appears the Taliban are making another strategic run at Kunduz city. The strategically vital and populous city, which fell to the Taliban for 15 days last fall, is now once again under siege.

Over the past 48 hours, key villages surrounding the city temporarily fell to the Taliban. A stone’s throw away from the city gates, Khanabad district fell on the morning of August 20 to the Taliban as weary Afghan forces short of supplies began to push back to the Kunduz city center.

Soldiers blamed the lack of coordination and supplies on the collapse of the district. One soldier, Mohammad Hashim, stated, “Two local police commanders were fighting each other in Khanabad district which allowed the insurgents to attack us and we lost the district.” Another soldier said, “It has been three days of fighting for us – on empty stomachs. We do not have food and our supply route has been cut off by the Taliban.” Others also blamed the poor performance on the dispute between President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah, accusing the two leaders of ignoring national security issues while furthering their personal feud.

]]>Today, the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships announced the appointment of the 2016-2017 class of White House Fellows. The Fellows come from diverse backgrounds, varied professions, and have demonstrated a strong commitment to public service and leadership. The 2016-2017 class of Fellows and their biographies are included in the following pages.

The White House Fellows Program was created in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to give promising American leaders “first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the Federal government, and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs.” This unique opportunity to work within our nation’s government is designed to encourage active citizenship and a lifelong commitment to service. The Fellows take part in an education program designed to broaden their knowledge of leadership, policy formulation, and current affairs. Community service is another essential element of the program, and Fellows participate in service projects throughout their year in Washington, D.C.

Selection as a White House Fellow is highly competitive and based on a record of professional achievement, evidence of leadership potential, and a proven commitment to public service. Each Fellow must possess the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute meaningfully at senior levels of the Federal government. Throughout its history, the program has fostered leaders in many fields, including government, business, law, media, medicine, education, diplomacy, and the military...

...Erik Iverson, Philadelphia, PA, recently served as Deputy Director for Planning at the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Emergency Management. He managed a portfolio of homeland security programs ranging from emergency planning to training and exercises and helped to coordinate the City’s response to major incidents including the 2015 Amtrak Northeast Regional derailment. Erik also contributed to the planning and execution of major events including the 2016 Democratic National Convention and the recent papal visit to Philadelphia. Prior to service in local government, Erik earned a Ph.D. in international relations at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, researching how agencies collaborate during crises. He received a number of awards and fellowships and served as a consultant to the federal government and a congressional task force on homeland security. Erik is active in his community having served as a youth mentor and a volunteer first responder. He is a Truman National Security Fellow, CNAS Next Generation National Security Fellow, and a graduate of the Executive Leaders Program at the Naval Postgraduate School. Erik received a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

]]>The United States has resumed operations of its B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber in Afghanistan for the first time in ten years. The strategic bomber recently flew several operations, dropping 27 munitions in various counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan. The reintroduction of the bomber may highlight the United States’ expanding role in Afghanistan and the increasing instability in the country.

“We got the B-52 back in the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Staff General David L. Goldfein announced.”We have the B-52 contributing to a significant ground effort and employing weapons in close proximity of friendly troops who are under attack [and] who are preparing the battlefield in new ways.”

Goldfein indicated that the U.S. Air Force’s B-52H detachment at the Al Udeid Air Base has conducted roughly 325 strikes, dropping nearly 1,300 bombs in Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria.

]]>The Taliban are making another run at Kunduz city in northern Afghanistan and are pulling out last year’s playbook in an effort to choke off the city. What may appear to be scattered and random attacks across northern Afghanistan throughout July and August are in fact a coordinated effort by the Taliban to surround and cut of Kunduz, an effort that was successful in the late fall of 2015.

The collapse of Kunduz throughout September and October of 2015 came as a surprise to many, as NATO commanders contended that Taliban forces were incapable of controlling and capturing major population centers. This notion meant that Taliban were not entirely an existential threat to the Kabul based government. The collapse of the strategically vital and populous city sent shockwaves throughout the region and coalition forces. After 15 harrowing days the provincial capital was recaptured by Afghan security forces and surrounding villages were slowly retaken back into the fold and sphere of influence of the central government.

The Taliban are once again making a play for another October surprise, utilizing the same strategy and tactics. The capture of Dahan-e-Ghori in Baghlan province has sounded alarm bells in Kabul that Kunduz is once again under threat. Baghlan province, located just south of Kunduz province, serves as a vital corridor; the main highway that runs through Baghlan’s capital of Pol-e-Khomri operated as the main logistical road to resupply and reinforce Afghan forces as they attempted to recapture Kunduz city during its fall in 2015.

]]>To explain the present, the Communist Party of China (CPC) often turns to the past. One of its favorite pastimes is to deploy China’s decorated history and the wisdom of its ancients to explain its policies and bolster its authority.

For example, the CPC frequently offers the (largely nonviolent) 15th century maritime voyages of Zheng He, who projected Chinese power and carried Chinese treasure to destinations as far flung as the Middle East and Africa, to support the notion of its “peaceful rise” in the 21st century. For his part, Mao was fond of quoting Sun Tzu and the Chinese classic Three Kingdoms, and today Xi Jinping keeps a rolodex of wise sayings from political philosophers at the ready.

Despite the homage paid to these leading lights, Beijing’s behavior is growing increasingly at odds with much of their counsel. That is to the detriment of China and the world.

Many of China’s most prominent political philosophers, including Guanzi, Laozi, Confucius, Xunzi, and Mencius, held that governing with humane authority—“winning the hearts and minds of the people at home and abroad”—was the key to becoming a leading world power, as Yan Xuetong points out in his book Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power. In terms of its foreign policy, China has been doing little of this lately.

On the Korean peninsula, China continues to subsidize the tyranny of the Kim regime by serving as Pyongyang’s economic lifeline. In particular, its policy of forcibly repatriating defectors from North Korea is an exercise in inhumane authority. This practice also violates international law, which holds that refugees cannot be repatriated to “conditions of danger.” And yet, China has marched tens of thousands of refugees back to the loving care of the fatherly leader, where they and their families face torture, labor camps, or execution. As a result, a landmark UN Commission of Inquiry report warned that China could be “aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.”

]]>With the impending NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and a slowing Russian economy, there are not many options for Central Asian countries to look for investments and infrastructure construction. Once considered the main investment and security partner for the former Soviet bloc nations, sanctions and low energy prices for the Russian economy have forced Central Asian countries to look elsewhere for economic diversification and security arrangements.

As Russian and American influences in the region slowly begin to wane, China has increasingly stepped up its efforts. However, increased Chinese investment and involvement in the region has been met with much skepticism, a relatively lukewarm reception.

Central Asian countries are well aware of their geostrategic importance to the region, which is reflected in China’s “One Belt One Road” initiative — a policy aimed at large scale economic investment throughout Central Asia to restore the periphery of the former Silk Road. A massive energy behemoth, Central Asia is an attractive investment opportunity for a Chinese economy looking to alleviate excess capacity issues that have slowed Chinese growth. With China facing slowing consumption, empty apartment buildings, and a declining manufacturing sector, Beijing’s “One Belt One Road” is aimed at reigniting Chinese demand and consumption.

]]>“Every day, hundreds of cables flood into the State Department from its missions around the world,” Mary Thompson-Jones explains near the beginning of “To the Secretary: Leaked Embassy Cables and America’s Foreign Policy Disconnect,” her new exploration of our role in shaping the international geopolitical landscape. “Dozens of bureaus are filled with personnel assigned to read them and take action. Understanding the flow of diplomatic reporting to and from Washington is a story of both too much and too little, and often not at the right time. ...

“Knowing by instinct when and what to communicate back home is what makes a good diplomat,” she continues. “Their reporting must walk a fine line between loyally carrying out assignments from Washington, while making essential, sometimes contradictory, points to a foreign policy establishment that does not always want to hear them.”

The world Thompson-Jones describes in “To the Secretary” is one most Americans have little understanding of or appreciation for; certainly, the average citizen is blissfully unaware of the inner workings of our embassies around the globe. More than anything else, the author provides an insider’s view of a process whose purpose and methods are shrouded in mystery and often serve as a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. This makes the profession infinitely seductive as fodder for countless novels and motion pictures centered on international intrigue and clandestine operations. After reading some of the real-life scenarios and shenanigans described in this superbly crafted volume, however, I was left with the relatively self-evident conclusion that truth really is stranger than fiction.

Is the structure between the Israeli and Palestinian territories a separation barrier? A security fence? An apartheid wall? A border? No matter how you name this divider, or other geopolitical lines of demarcation in the region, you risk someone accusing you of harboring inherent bias. On a global scale, peace negotiations have stalled for months and years over how dividing lines — and the areas they divide — are named and detailed on maps.

Even career diplomatic negotiators haven’t figured out how to navigate many of these cartographic minefields, so it’s not overly surprising that a commercial technology company like Google hasn’t gotten this quite right either.

Google’s most recent offense? Failing to label “Palestine” on Google Maps, according to more than 300,000 people who signed a petition demanding Google put Palestine back on the map and arguing that the company had no grounds for leaving the territory off. The petition was launched in March, but grabbed renewed attention over the last week.

]]>Halfway through the Games, let’s look at the Olympics as the original peace-through-sport movement. Today, does its idealistic halo control international conflict, invasions, and indifference to human suffering?
During the Olympic season, we see goodwill on display between nations – even among some enemies. The Games provide a cover for foes to walk the same walk in public, and even talk the same talk. The United Nations agreed again on an Olympic Truce enabling all to travel and participate safely at the Games to make the world a better place.

So, how is the Truce working for these XXXI Games of the Olympiad?

Here’s a running list. To bring people together, Brazil dropped visa requirements for the Games. Global transportation systems deployed well. The new airport, roadways and subway are bearing the weight of arrivals. Security teams of various types are visible and plentiful. The parade of athletes at the Opening Ceremony, the most famous movement in the Movement, went smoothly. Impressively, a new path was walked by new players – the first-ever team of refugees.

And when they passed, each one they passed said yeah.

Again the Olympic Truce shows that borders can be crossed even though foreign governments might be crossed.

What about life in the park? In ancient times, no weapons were to enter the sacred Olympian grove of competition. Today in Rio, the Olympic Village is secure while at the same time homelike. The athletes are signing the traditional Truce Wall. The venues have efficient screening systems in place. Yes, outside the fence big city problems continue, including a mugging on Copacabana Beach of a judoka medalist, no less. The UN flag flies along the others. Public health officials seek a virus-free Games by fogging with insecticide. Police action to explode questionable packages lying around is both concerning yet reassuring. Whether these Games are impermeable or merely dodging bullets will be discussed. So far, Rio hospitality remains determined and buoyant, regardless of political, economic, and social undertows unforeseen by planners seven years ago.

On June 23, 2016, the Fletcher Club of DC hosted a talk with General Joseph Dunford (F92), the 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. Conference Center in D.C.

General Dunford spoke to a crowd of 80 Fletcher alumni about U.S. security threats and how the Department of Defense responds to them.

The Boston native became the Chairman on October 1, 2015; prior to his appointment, he served as the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps from 2010 to 2012 in addition to serving as the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force and the United States Forces- Afghanistan from February 2013 to August 2014.

Jimmy Antia (F09), President of The Fletcher Club of DC, was pleasantly surprised at how quickly alumni signed up for the event: “Our RSVP list filled up within twenty-seven minutes of sending out the invitation to the alumni,” said Antia. “So it was record time in terms of getting the venue to capacity, and we were very fortunate to have some great alums donate the space to us.”

After sharing his insights for about 20 minutes, Dunford opened up the floor to questions from the crowd, which included a few Fletcher veterans.

“He took an hour of questions from the crowd, and the crowd had a really good discussion with him,” said Antia. He answered each question in detail with great specificity. It was one of those points where we almost ran out of questions to ask him because he was so generous with his time.”

]]>A new Taliban commando force is testing the battle weary Afghan army in Helmand province. With reports of Helmand valley, a strategic location for Taliban opium financing operations, near collapse, questions need to be asked regarding this new commando unit.

Over the last year the Taliban have deployed a new commando unit of roughly 300 fighters. The results displayed so far this fighting season have been deadly, further highlighting that Afghan forces have yet to find a solution to counter this rising threat.

Deploying new tactics, the unit named Sara Khitta, which means Red Group or Danger Group in Pashto, has deployed new tactics to include employing night vision technology, night raids, and a tactical focus on cutting roads and supply lanes to towns and villages, instead of direct attacks on checkpoints and police stations.

]]>Ismat Jahan (F86) will head the OIC's Permanent Observer Mission to the European Union. Previously in her career, she has served as the Bangladesh ambassador in Brussels. Jahan will serve the next four years as the first Bangladeshi in this position. Read more here. ]]>Whatever you think about British politics now, or the desirability of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May has been decisive since taking office. While she has asserted – rightly – that Brexit can only take place once the four parts of the United Kingdom are content with the overall strategy, she has also stated, firmly, that “Brexit means Brexit,” adding, importantly, that: “we are going to make a success of it.” This approach, which feels as decidedly British, in its willingness to balance competing interests and its dogged optimism, is the right way to bring Britons round from the garishness of the referendum debate – hardly the United Kingdom’s finest hour – with its lies-as-truth, untruths-as-realities, and facts-to-cover-uncertainties from both sides. Short of the success of the upcoming legal challenges, or some unforeseeable political developments, Brexit is almost certain to happen.

As when waking from a disturbing dream, it is best to start with a quick reality check: Let’s separate desires from the empirical facts. The shape-shifting beast – that is, Brexit – has not bitten the United Kingdom’s leg off yet, contrary to various calamitous predictions. The country’s vital parts are still in place. The British people have, albeit by a small majority, chosen to leave the European Union, not Europe. The United Kingdom is still there, and its allies will remain its allies because despite all the appeals to base emotion, all the cant and exaggeration, nothing happened to change the determining facts of geography, geopolitics and a well of common culture. Already Britons’ spirits are starting to recover.

The initial part of “making the best of it,” in May’s words, must be to recover from the shock and take an inventory of what is still in its place. What is still in place? What are the essential capabilities of the United Kingdom?

A maritime economy ranking in the first half dozen countries of the world and likely to stay that way well into the 21st century;

The world’s premier global financial center – London;

A still potent – if somewhat recently neglected – capacity for defense and power projection;

A dense diplomatic network, alliances, and partnerships that span the globe, including a unique relationship with the world's leading power, the United States;

A growing population and premium educational institutions and global talent in science, innovation, and art.

Read the full op-ed ]]>Jennifer Prah Ruger, F91, has joined Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2) as the Amartya Sen Professor of Health Equity, Economics and Policy and as the director of SP2’s Master of Science in Social Policy (MSSP) Program. On July 1, 2016, she stepped into her new role as SP2’s inaugural Associate Dean for Global Studies and Faculty Chair at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy (CHIP).

Dr. Ruger has a master of studies in law from Yale, a PhD in health policy from Harvard, a master of arts from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a master of science in comparative social research from Oxford.

“I am extremely honored to join the Social Policy & Practice community. SP2 has a rigorous and conceptually broad approach to the most pressing social problems facing the nation and the world and is known for its path-breaking work. I look forward to partnering with distinguished faculty, staff and students to build on and expand exceptional interdisciplinary programs, research, teaching and service to address critical issues within the School of Social Policy & Practice and beyond.” Continue reading the full article here.

]]>Most immigration activists decline to go on record with concrete proposals backed by hard numbers. Megan McArdle at Bloomberg recently wrote that "No One's Actually Talking About Immigration." What she means is that the Democrats' promotion of amnesty by trotting out cute illegal-alien kids and the Republicans' focus on border security don't address the questions that really matter:

"How many people should we let in, of what education and skill level? How should we handle marital visas? What trade-offs are we willing to make between national unity and the humanitarian and practical benefits of migration?"

McArdle overstates her case - after all, I did write a whole book addressing just these questions. Nevertheless, there's a lot of truth to her observation.

]]>Greg Scarlatoiu, F02, was admitted as a Fellow in the 2016-2017 class of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology program, Seminar XXI: Foreign Politics, International Relations and the National Interest. Scarlatoiu is the Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) in Washington, D.C., and a seasoned lecturer on North Korean human rights, political security and economic issues on the Korean peninsula. He will represent HRNK as one of two NGO's among many U.S. national security leaders in the class. ]]>In mid-July, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford relayed to the media cautious optimism regarding the war effort in Afghanistan. Afghan security forces—reeling from a bloody 2015 fighting season, which witnessed the first collapse of a major population center since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001—appear to be making slow and steady progress on the battlefield, a rare piece of positive news emanating from the war-torn region.

A multitude of factors are showing encouraging signs for the fledgling Afghan military. Afghan security forces are applying lessons learned to last year’s harrowing fighting season by reducing static checkpoints and pushing for more offensive operations. Prioritizing strategic terrain and pulling back forces from less populated regions, such as the withdrawal from Nowzad, has ushered in new offensive capabilities and strengths for Afghan security forces.

New technologies, to include a fixed-wing close air support platform—the A-29 Super Tucano—and the employment of surveillance drones, has bolstered the capabilities of Afghan forces and improved morale of fighting forces on the ground. President Obama approved new rules of engagement for U.S. forces operating in Afghanistan under the train, advise and assist Resolute Support mission, to assist their fellow host-nation forces in targeting the Taliban.

All of these steady improvements appear to be showing signs of relative success, as the number of attacks in the country has decreased and Afghan forces continue to conduct offensive combat operations to root out the Taliban.

]]>full article here. ]]>Professor Colette Mazzucelli (F'87) hosted a working breakfast at NYU New York in the IR MA Department for the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), organized in cooperation with the New York Office of the US Department of State, comprising four Peer 2 Peer (P2P) finalist teams from Azerbaijan, Belgium, the College of Europe, and the Netherlands on July 5, 2016.

Following a P2P debriefing session and discussion about the emerging Peer 2 Peer alumni network in countries worldwide, Ms. Rebecca Ulam Weiner, Director of Intelligence and Analysis, New York Police Department, spoke about the challenges and opportunities she faces in her work as she fielded questions from the audience.

This is the second time Mazzucelli hosted an IVLP working breakfast at NYU New York. On February 5, 2016, P2P finalist teams from Pakistan, Finland, Kuwait, and Switzerland visited the University with colleagues from the Institute of International Education and the US Department of State. Find the full article, including photos here. ]]>Rear Adm. Jeffrey A. Harley relieved Rear Adm. P. Gardner Howe III to become the 56th president of the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) in Newport, Rhode Island, during a change of command ceremony, July 25th.

“For more than 130 years, the Naval War College has been the birthplace, the cradle and the home of naval strategy,” said guest speaker Adm. John M. Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations. “It’s clear that this role has been enhanced in the last two years by Howe’s leadership. The college is now an absolutely fertile environment for new ideas.”...

...“I can think of no other officer in the United States Navy that is more excited or well prepared to take over the reins at the college than Rear Adm. Harley,” Howe said. “He has a diverse operational and intellectual background, and experiences that are perfect for guiding an educational institution focused on a complex world.”

In addition to being a NWC graduate, Harley received a Bachelor of Arts in political science at the University of Minnesota and a Masters of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He reports from his most recent assignment as assistant deputy Chief of Naval Operations for operations, plans and strategy in Washington, D.C.

]]>As the sun set on 11 August, 2014, a middle-aged man knocked on the big blue gate of UN base in Butembo, a town in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The man told the guard he was a senior commander from an enigmatic Islamist rebel group known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which had been battling the Congolese army, and wanted to surrender.

In the days and weeks that followed, the man - who became known as Mr X - enraptured military officers and civilian staff working for the intelligence units of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Congo (MONUSCO). He told fantastic tales about his trips to Somalia to meet with al-Qaeda leaders and of a white German woman who was making bombs for the ADF. But his most salacious tales related to the rebels' ties to the Taliban and Boko Haram, as well as the ADF's responsibility for the assassination of a Congolese national hero, Colonel Mamadou Ndala.

MONUSCO's analysts thought they had achieved a major intelligence coup. In fact, their embrace of Mr X turned out to be a spectacular intelligence failure, the full implications of which are not yet known.\

]]>Swampscott native Pamela Rotner Sakamoto has fond memories of the Harvard Coop. “My parents used to drive us in every few months, and they would have us choose some books that we were intrigued by,” she said. One book had a particularly large impact: “The first book that I ever bought about Japan — and it’s still in print with the same cover – was this book called “Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories,’’ of Japanese fairy tales.”

Sakamoto went on to study Japanese, live and work in Japan, and marry a Japanese man. This week, she will return to the Coop to read from her own book, “Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds,” which tells the true story of Harry Fukuhara, a retired US Army colonel...

...Researching in both languages and countries, Sakamoto, who has a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, got to know both sides of the Fukuhara family. “I tried to keep the historian’s distance,” she said. “But I really felt and feel very fondly toward them. You could see the whole history of US-Japan relations — immigration to the United States, racism, discrimination, internment, and success — through this one family’s lives.”

]]>Just before the NATO summit in Warsaw, President Obama announced a new Afghan policy to maintain 8,400 troops in Afghanistan through next year; a shift from a previous goal of reducing America’s effort in the war torn country to an embassy size protection force of 5,500 combat troops. The shift in strategy counters Obama’s promise of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As he prepares to leave office America has re-entered the Iraq conflict with several thousand troops on the ground; maintained a force posture of over 8000 troops in Afghanistan with expanded rules of engagement that allow U.S. forces to target the Taliban; witnessed the entrance U.S. forces in Syria; and an ever increasing counter-terrorism operation in Africa. America’s wars are expanding with no end on the horizon and with that have come a hyper partisan atmosphere and a toxic election cycle.

Obama entered 2008 with the promise to end the wars; the state we currently find ourselves in is emblematic of a broader trend that the global order is experiencing a shift towards a multi-polar world coupled with a chaotic mix of nihilistic and extremist non-state groups currently destabilizing large swaths of the Middle East and North Africa.

Faced with this new reality, the Obama administration has steadied America on a long term strategy to counter rising non-state actors while at the same time pivoting towards America’s greater strategic interest, the Pacific and the rise of China. That long term strategy focuses primarily on a reliance on the use of Special Forces and the training of foreign military units to counter growing threats in regions of weak central governance.

]]>FIVE YEARS INTO the Syrian conflict, armed Islamist groups such as the so-called Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham have come to play a title role in the war and in daily life in many parts of the country. The emergence and development of these factions – which vary widely in size and strength – have not only influenced the course of the conflict, but impacted events far outside Syria’s borders...

...As the first-ever U.S. special representative to Muslim communities, Farah Pandith traveled to 80 countries in just five years on a mission to engage with Muslim communities. She focused on getting to know young people in those communities, and trying to understand what appeal extremist groups may hold for some of them. Today, Pandith is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She’s working on a book about extremism and efforts to counter violent extremists. “Extremists have attempted to shape every possible part of the cultural ecosystem surrounding young Muslims. They seek to make the extremist mindset the new normal,” she wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times. “To stop extremist recruiting, we must get serious about destroying the ideological extremist narratives.” She’s on Twitter at @Farah_Pandith.

]]>Derreck Kayongo, F12, became CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights museum in downtown Atlanta about six months ago. Kayongo is considered a non-traditional person to come and lead the center because of his background; he and his family fled a civil war in Uganda and settled in Kenya as refugees. He immigrated to America after being awarded a scholarship to attend The Fletcher School.

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is an intersection of civil and human rights. The center includes tributes to other battles: from women's rights to the struggles of person with disabilities to gay, lesbian and transgender issues. Read the full article here.

]]>Hassan Abbas, F02, F08, is featured and interviewed in the article "Islam and Liberalism" in the Democracy Journal website. The article discusses progressive roots within Islam, and questions if they ca be strengthened. Read the full article here.

The recent revelation from FBI Director James Comey that the FBI would not be recommending an indictment over Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email server while she served as secretary of State has incited anger and outrage from Americans and the veteran community. The common talking point emanating from many circles is that the Gen. David Petraeus case was far less egregious than Clinton’s; this couldn’t be further from the truth.

As Comey indicated before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, the Petraeus case represented the perfect kind of case that the Department of Justice would prosecute. Petraeus shared journals detailing highly classified information regarding operations in Afghanistan to Paula Broadwell, who at the time was co-authoring the four-star general’s biography, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus.” A subsequent 2012 investigation by the FBI discovered that Petraeus had an affair with Broadwell. The journal provided to Broadwell included names of covert operatives and intelligence capabilities. Furthermore, Petraeus hid the classified documents in his attic and lied to prosecutors.

During Comey’s grilling on Capitol Hill he stated, “so you have obstruction of justice, you have intentional misconduct and a vast quantity of information. He admitted he knew that was the wrong thing to do. That is a perfect illustration of the kind of cases that get prosecuted.”

]]>Technology is the new normal. Whether one works in humanitarian response to conflict, good governance, anti-corruption or peacebuilding, technology is being incorporated in ever increasing and innovative ways. The field of evaluation is no different. This paper lays out a 5-step decision filter for the experienced evaluator to effectively navigate the inclusion of technology.
]]>Executive Profile: New Boston Club chief Maureen Alphonse-Charles aims to challenge ‘arbitrary gender quotas’ for boards

Education: Bachelor’s degree in international relations, Boston University, 1985; master’s degree in law and diplomacy, Tufts Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, 1987

Residence: Milton

Maureen Alphonse-Charles has been playing the violin since the age of 6. Music helps keep her centered, she said. Plus, the teamwork involved in being part of a musical ensemble is an ideal metaphor in her role as a human resources executive.

Teamwork and harmony are keys in both her “day job” — senior vice president and chief operating officer of The Partnership, which works to attract, develop and retain multicultural professionals at all levels of leadership — and her new role as president of The Boston Club, which focuses on helping women fill seats on corporate and not-for-profit boards.

Much like a conductor, she said, “I want to make sure all voices are heard.”

Alphonse-Charles is the 20th president and first African-American leader of the organization founded 40 years ago as a place for women to meet and network. Today, it is one of the largest organizations for women executive and professional leaders in the Northeast with a representative cross-section of industries and sectors among its more than 700 members and an annual budget of $700,000.

The club’s track record to date is impressive: It has influenced or had a direct role in 100 corporate sector placements since 1986. In addition, it has placed more than 200 women on nonprofit boards in the last 20 years. Last year alone, it influenced 90 corporate board searches.

On April 29 2016, The Fletcher School and the Atlantic Council hosted the inaugural conference on resurgent authoritarianism which brought the security and democratic development communities together to discuss combatting corrupt authoritarian regimes in pivotal regions where the U.S. has national security interests.

Professor Richard Shultz opened the proceedings by providing background on the decade long democratic recession in countries like Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia and the hazards that have accompanied it. According to Shultz, this kind of recession has not only facilitated extremism but also destabilized neighboring countries and their respective regions at large.

Following Shultz’s opening remarks, the first panel consisted of a keynote conversation between the following: former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, Chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict Peter Ackerman, and Special Advisor on Violent Extremism, Conflict and Fragility at the U.S. Institute of Peace Beth Cole.

Panelists highlighted the issues of resurgent authoritarianism and the role of the United States in democratic development, which included its tools to encourage democracy in fragile regions, such as diplomatic engagement, private sector assistance and military engagement.

Dr. Maria Stephan (F02, F05), moderator of the panel, called authoritarianism “a serious problem,” but asserted that “we have the tools to do something about it…. tools to help empower civil society and other local drivers of democracy.”

Ackerman emphasized the use of civil resistance as a tool for democratic development. He believes the utilization of civil resistance creates disruption that eventually leads to defection, resulting in a safer method of communication and pressure on authoritarian regimes to reform.

In addition, Stephan cited the importance of engaging with the security sector when discussing democratic development.

“The security sector and security actors are critical components of any society, and when talking about democratic development, if you’re not bringing the security community into the conversation, you’re sort of missing the boat,” she said.

Admiral Dennis Blair touched on how authoritarian governments are using democratic ideas and processes for their interests. In these cases, the military has become a special interest group that regimes control through a combination of “carrots and sticks” to enable them to support the regime.
Admiral Blair also criticized the abuse of the military and called for a “democratic transition” to increase governmental control over armies: “Governments need to chip away at the armies excessive privileges while strengthening the roles and image of the armed forces.”

The panelists also urged the defense sector to move away from solely training and equipping security actors to building institutions. Beth Cole echoed these sentiments and advised all stakeholders to be involved in the institutional aspects of defense sector reform, citing that regime change should also occur in institutional terms as well. Beyond defense institution building, Cole also called on the U.S. to establish incentives for the respective militaries it is working with to meet the populations they are supposed to protect.

Through a critical but optimistic lens, the 2016 panelists of the inaugural conference on resurgent authoritarianism offered significant insight into both short term and long term solutions. With unified world security and development sectors, change is certainly possible over time for regions dealing with decade long democratic recessions if the suggested measures are taken.

The conference was part of a partnership established by The Fletcher School and Atlantic Council in July 2015. These two organizations are working together to tackle a full range of substantive issue areas through a number of endeavors including joint programs, co-hosted conferences and workshops, among other activities.

]]>Sonam Tobden Rabgye, F90, former head of the Policy and Planning Division of the Foreign Ministry is the new Ambassador of Bhutan to Bangladesh. His Majesty The King granted Dhar to appoint Bhutan's Ambassadors to Bangladesh and Thailand, as well as the Dzongdags for Dagana, Trashigang, Samdrup Jongkhar, and Lhuentse. ]]>

You know you're onto something when you have Mark Zuckerberg and Google behind you.

Andela, a two-year-old startup, trains software developers in Africa and gives them full-time roles at international companies.

It already employs nearly 200 engineers in its offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Lagos, Nigeria.

On Thursday, it announced that it has banked $24 million in a round led by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's fund, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. It also scored a new investor, GV (formerly Google Ventures) in the fresh round of financing...

...Andela is also adamant about working on getting more women into technical roles. This is another big pain point for U.S.-based tech companies. Just 20% of software developers are women -- and tech firms have increasingly promised to do better on inclusion.

Andela has a company-wide goal that 35% of its software developers are women, according to Christina Sass, one of Andela's four cofounders.

In Kenya, they were seeing a dearth of female applicants.

"We just weren't where we needed to be. We struggled to have that percentage," Sass said. "It's getting the word out there to young women that we're an employer to be actively excited about. Then getting to their families that Andela is a safe place to work."

So Andela tried a different strategy, which Sass referred to as "a very disciplined effort." And it worked.

]]>Christina Sass, F09, is one of four co-founders of the two-year-old startup company, Andela. Andela trains software developers in Africa and gives them full-time roles at international companies. The incredibly selective company, which has received more than 40,000 applications for its job placement services and accepts only 0.7%, is now backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Google. ]]>On June 2, the U.S. State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism. During the announcement of the reports, Justin Siberell, the department’s counterterrorism chief, noted that, once again, Washington and Cairo are drifting further apart in their understanding of violent extremism. Speaking to the drivers of terrorism in Egypt, Siberell noted that “there is quite well understood linkage in some cases between repressive policies of governments, including in its security practices, as a contributing factor in some cases to radicalization.”

His comments stand in stark contrast to documents and remarks by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at a United Nations Security Council meeting in May. Ahead of the UNSC debate, Egypt, which held the 15-member body’s presidency that month, sent a concept paper calling for a discussion on how to counter the threat of “ideologies of religiously inspired terrorist groups,” such as the Islamic State (ISIS) and al Qaeda, which “emanate and derive from the same extremist, takfiri and violent concepts and views that were propagated in the mid-twentieth century... [and that] provide them with intellectual foundation.”

]]>Radio Boston devoted its show to the tragedy in Orlando: the worst mass shooting in American history. At least 49 people were killed when a gunman burst into Pulse, a popular gay nightclub at closing time early Sunday morning. The killer reportedly professed allegiance to ISIS. Farah Pandith (F95) joined the discussion to talk about her role as the Obama Administration's Special Representative to Muslim Communities and how to combat radicalization.

]]>When Lenore Myka, F99, started writing fiction inspired by her Peace Corps stint in Romania, her imagination was drawn to dark topics: discrimination against the Roma people, sex trafficking, the challenges of orphanage life and cross-cultural adoption, and the missteps and blind spots of naïve Americans who try to help.

She worried that the stories would upset her friends, but when she tried to steer her fiction toward more positive themes, it became clichéd and sentimental. “I did not like my work when I tried to be kind and generous,” she wrote in an essay published on the website Necessary Fiction. “I was bored and knew my readers would be, too.”

So she decided not to worry about what others would think. The result is King of the Gypsies (BkMk Press, 2015), a book of linked short stories that won the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction and was a finalist for the 2016 Chautauqua Prize. Although the stories often feature characters in tough circumstances, they are not overwhelmingly bleak, in part because the people are fascinating and resilient.

]]>Richard Kessler, F76, F86, worked hard with the help of Senator John Kerry to establish a Fulbright program to teach Vietnamese about free market economics and rule of law. Because of Kessler's idea to develop this program, Senator Kerry has pursued the idea to establish Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV). The university was licensed on May 16, 2016. Click here to read the full article. ]]>Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, a Liberian economist, who serves as the Director of the African Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is set to retire from the Fund after eight years in office.

According to an IMF statement released on Wednesday, Sayeh has notified Christine Lagarde, IMF’s Managing Director, of her intention to retire, effective August 31, 2016.

As the Director of the African Department for the past eight years, Antoinette has been enormously influential in cementing the IMF’s relations with our African member countries,” Lagarde said. “Antoinette navigated these and later challenges with her trademark skills of quiet, effective diplomacy, deep analytical capability, and an unrivalled understanding of the challenges facing her continent.”

Sayeh joined the IMF in July 2008, just as surging food and fuel prices and the global financial crisis were undercutting living standards on the African continent. She was previously Liberia’s Minister of Finance from 2006 to 2008 under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s government, and led efforts to clear the country’s debt arrears after a decade of civil war.

Read the full article ]]>April 25th 2016 marked one year of preventable atrocities in Burundi. Many initiatives took place to commemorate the violence- peaceful demonstrations at the United Nations Security Council in New York, human-interest broadcasts, testimonies shared from activists like Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, and rights-based art exhibits. Through these events, the Burundian diaspora community once again called the world to action. Over the past year, the violence in Burundi has captured the lives of hundreds of innocent individuals, created a mass refugee problem, and threatens to further destabilize the Great Lakes region if no action is taken.

The situation in Burundi has been exacerbated by a long history of two-sided violence, low civic trust in the Burundian government, lack of security and basic protection, and little opportunities for livelihoods growth. Marie Louise Baricako, the President of the Association of Women and Girls for Peace and Security in Burundi (MFFPS), said that “government is something completely separated from the people.” She places the hope for Burundi in an overhaul of the leadership structure and possibilities in Burundi, stating that good governance will ideally follow.

On 25 April 2015, the ruling CNDD-FDD announced that Pierre Nkurunziza would run for a third term in the 26 June 2015 presidential election. The announcement sparked protests by those opposed to Nkurunziza and those who claimed a third term would violate the country’s constitution established at Arusha in 2005, which states that no President can be elected more than twice. In May 2015 Burundi’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of Mr. Nkurunziza, amid reports of judges being intimidated. Tens of thousands fled violence amid protests. In July 2015 Mr. Nkurunziza was reelected. The polls were disputed, with opposition leader AgathonRwasa describing them as “a joke.”

]]>When most people think about climate change, the first thing that comes to mind is the burning of fossil fuels for energy or transport. Rarely are forests considered. But they must be. The deal struck at the Paris climate change summit (COP 21) in December 2015 confirmed this. Forests and forestry, long a side note to larger conversations about reduction of emissions from energy supply and use, were topics of increased focus and discussion.

The reason is clear: If the world is going to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the focus cannot solely be on fossil fuels. We must also reduce emissions from the land sector—above all by stemming deforestation. Globally, the Center for International Forestry Research estimates that forests absorb 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. This is about one-third of the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels. At the same time, deforestation and land-use change accounts for nearly 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions—more than the world’s entire transport sector.

The importance of forests in climate change mitigation strategies is particularly clear in Latin America and the Caribbean, where approximately 46% of land is covered by forests, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Forests in this region act as important carbon sinks, sequestering 440 million tons of CO2 equivalents. And conversion of forests to other uses was the main source of greenhouse gas emissions between 2001 and 2010 in the region, averaging 1.9 billion tons of CO2 equivalents.

At the Paris summit, countries from Latin America and the Caribbean submitted national climate action plans detailing their commitments and targets for emissions reductions. Many of these national plans include specific targets related to the protection of forests, and the sustainable use of forest resources. While there are many mechanisms available to conserve forests, one of the most promising is the development of community forest enterprises.

]]>As President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC mark one year in office, the media have been full of screaming headlines in praise or denunciation of the leadership style and its positive or negative impact on the lives of Nigerians. To achieve a more holistic assessment of the new Aso Rock occupant and the new ruling party, we have to look beyond the headlines by focusing more on the trend of events since power changed hands in the presidential seat of power on May 29, 2015.

To borrow the phrase made popular by Mario Cuomo, the former charismatic governor of the state of New York, USA, President Buhari and APC campaigned in poetry and are now governing in prose. Let me explain. Literarily speaking, presidential adviser, Femi Adesina’s piece in the vanguard newspaper of Saturday, May 28, 2016 titled “Beyond the Iron and Steel” where he regaled readers with the humane side of his boss, is one of the many headlines extolling the political and social virtues of the ‘new Sherrif’ in Aso Rock villa.

In all honesty, Adesina’s headline article was rendered in very fine prose, which underlines the title of this article and justifies Mario Cuomo’s popular political mantra ‘campaign in poetry and govern in prose’. The kernel of Mr. Cuomo’s famous quote is that when politicians are on the campaign trail, they are long on promises, but when they take office, they resort to speaking in prose, when they can’t deliver on their promise, as we are currently witnessing.

The truth is that no matter the superlative and fabulous adjectives presidential husbandmen deploy in airbrushing President Buhari, he remains a stern man, who is on a mission to change Nigeria, but too much in a hurry to catch economic thieves, than to fix the broken economy. So, my worry is that he has been a tad inflexible in policy formulation and a bit strenuous in his approach to bringing about the change which he promised.

Although these shortcomings could be excused as vision-related challenges and are therefore amenable to modification in future, after all, he is only one year in office of four years tenure. But President Buhari and his government would only be compelled to conform to democratic tenets, when men and women of goodwill call a spade a spade by continuously reminding him of his failure to meet the expectations of the masses that constitute his core support base.

That’s my raison d’ete for this intervention as a public intellectual as opposed to personal animosity against the president and his team, as some are alleging in some quarters. The truth is that, a dispassionate assessment of Buhari’s first year in office would reveal that there has been tremendous adversity in Nigeria and as the saying goes, not even all the spices in India, can wash that away or cover the odium.

]]>What are some of the ways the U.S. and other countries could defend maritime assets against swarms of Sea-Air drones? Consider a convoy system with human centered technology, algorithms from nature, and elements of gaming.

The FAA estimated that one million drones would be sold during this 2015 holiday season. This estimate was based primarily on the proliferation of flying drones, however new domains of operation may open up soon. Premiering in 2015, the Loon Copter proves that, in time, these devices will be capable of traditional aerial flight, on-water surface operations, and sub-aquatic diving. Embedded Systems Research at Oakland University created the Loon Copter in 2014. In 2016, the design placed third in the UAE Drones for Good competition. The system works in air as well as in water because the four rotors balance and cut through air and water equally well.

According to the New America Foundation, at least 19 countries possessed or were acquiring armed drone technology as of 2015. The Washington Post and The Aviationist reported in July of 2014 that even non-state actors like Hamas have manufactured drones capable of firing rockets or missiles. At the time of reporting it was unknown whether this specific group had the ability to launch missiles, but the story does show the willingness of non-state actors to weaponize technology. The same Washington Post article describes how low-tech “suicide” drones effectively function as guided missiles. With the history of state actors increasingly acquiring armed drones and non-state actors weaponizing drones, Sea-Air drones could open new realms of battlespace.

]]>When he was a senior at Mission San Jose High School in 1976, Scot Marciel didn't care much to see the world.

"I think I knew I wanted to go to college," he said. "That's about it."

Today, Marciel is the U.S. Ambassador to Burma, a wide ocean away from the town where he still has fond memories of playing Little League Baseball on Saturdays and being an "average high school kid."

Marciel, 57, returns to his hometown at least once a year with his family to see his father, Ron Marciel. His wife Mae, who he met while serving as a diplomat in the Philippines, has relatives in Sunnyvale and Tracy.

It wasn't until he went to Ohlone College that Marciel's interest in international affairs was sparked. After earning an associate's degree there in 1978, he went on to get a bachelor's in international relations from the University of California at Davis and a master's at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Marciel joined the U.S. Department of State in 1985.

]]> The Renewables 2016 Global Status Report was launched with much success on 1 June at the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco, California.

The GSR brings together timely information from governments, nongovernmental organizations, research and academic institutions and industry to learn, inform and build successes that advance renewable energy. It is also very valuable for policy decision makers, as it provides high quality and timely information which catalyses discussion and debate. Without our invaluable expert contributors, this report would not be possible.

CIERP alumna Janet Sawin (F93, F01) is the Lead Author and Content Editor for the publication, as well as a chapter author. In addition, Freyr Sverrisson (F94) worked closely with Sawin on research direction and lead authorship, and was a chapter author as well. The REN21 Renewables Global Status Report is the most frequently referenced report on renewable energy policy and business.

]]>At the age of 10, Uzbekistan native, Nursultan Eldosov, traveled internationally for the first time to Moscow, Russia for a visa interview at the US Embassy. After his family’s selection in the Diversity Immigrant Visa Lottery to move to the US, his global perspective changed: “I found the 6000 mile journey showed me that there was a bigger world and international community of people.”

A People to People International trip to D.C. during high school, in addition to his experiences within the walls of the US Embassy, sparked his interest in public service, as it combines his interest in community service with his own personal international background, which includes speaking four languages.

Eldosov’s experiences at Georgetown University and internships at the US State Department through his Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship prepared him for various roles at The Fletcher School like being a family resource coordinator at the Tufts University Refugee Assistance Program (TURAP).

His coursework at Fletcher, particularly Professor Alan Henrikson’s class focusing on sustainable development and diplomacy, gave him insight into how to best guide the Afghan family he worked with.

In addition, Eldosov cited Professor Henrikson as role model after taking two classes with him. Professor Henrikson’s frequently discussed topic of “intellectual capital” in particular resonated deeply with him.

“Intellectual capital stems from your dedication to the study of a specific subject. When you sit down to study it [the subject] thoroughly and take notes, you can hold it in your brain and tie it into other things that you may not be able to see by just googling something,” he said.

When reflecting on his transformational experiences outside the classroom, Eldosov recalled his own immigration journey and the help his family received from his American neighbors. He stressed how small actions can have a large impact: “It doesn’t take much to have an impact but that doesn’t mean you take those responsibilities lightly.”

He will continue to take on public service responsibilities as a diplomat for the US Foreign Service in DC. For those interested in this field, Eldosov had the following advice: “Public service starts individually. Make the best of what you have and prepare yourself with education and experiences because that is public service within itself, having educated citizens.”

]]>Scot Marciel was sworn in by Secretary John Kerry as the next U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of the Union of Burma. Marciel commits to support people of Burma as they build a brighter future. Direct Tweet from @JohnKerry, "Always a pleasure to see our best take on the most vital assignments - congrats @scot_a_marciel, @USEmbassyBurma's new Ambassador." View more here. ]]>The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) is recognizing four outstanding woman journalists as winners of its annual Courage in Journalism Awards. Honorees include Mabel Cáceres, founder and editor-in-chief of El Búho, an independent magazine in Peru; Janine di Giovanni, Middle East Editor at Newsweek and contributing editor at Vanity Fair; and Stella Paul, a freelance journalist in India. Diane Rehm, long-time host of the public radio show that bears her name, will receive IWMF’s respected Lifetime Achievement Award.

“These courageous journalists have faced seemingly insurmountable security threats and personal challenges in reporting on global issues and often, their impact on women,” IWMF Executive Director Elisa Lees Muñoz said. “It is an honor to celebrate their commitment to press freedom and their service to other women in their industry with our annual Courage Awards.” Winners were announced last night at a private ceremony held at Hearst Tower in New York City.

Now in its 27th year, the IWMF Courage in Journalism Awards celebrate women journalists who set themselves apart through extraordinary bravery. The Lifetime Achievement Award honors one woman who has set new standards for journalists and encourages future generations of reporters to find their voices. Winners join IWMF’s Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award honorees, announced earlier this month, in demonstrating the uncommon capacity, perseverance, and empathy women journalists bring to their craft – and the barriers they must overcome along the way.

Janine di Giovanni began reporting on conflict and humanitarian disasters 25 years ago as a freelancer working in Gaza and the West Bank. She reports by engaging local citizens and often by working independently, without support from a major news organization. Based in Paris, she focuses on women’s rights, child soldiers, HIV/AIDS, war crimes, honor crimes, illegal detention, refugees, and crimes against humanity.

]]>The government of Myanmar has come under fire this month following Aung San Suu Kyi’s rebuke of U.S. Ambassador Scot Marciel’s reference to the Rohingya, the estimated one million stateless Muslim inhabitants of Myanmar’s Western Rakhine State. Aung San Suu Kyi’s government refuses to fully confront the issue of the Rohingya, who have been denied equal access to citizenship since the passage of the 1982 Citizenship Law. The denial of citizenship has compounded human rights abuses, rising to the crime of genocide, according to an October study by Fortify Rights. The persecution of the Rohingya has deservedly captured increasing international attention in recent years, although greater awareness and mobilization is needed. The plight of statelessness remains a universal challenge.

Around the world, there are an estimated 15 million stateless people. According to the UNHCR, somewhere a stateless child is born every 10 minutes and within the countries hosting the 20 largest stateless populations some 70,000 stateless children are born every year. In 2014, the UNHCR announced its Campaign to end Statelessness in ten years. The same year, the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion reported that more people in Asia and the Pacific are affected by statelessness than in any other region of the world. How ASEAN addresses this challenge will be key to achieving the UN’s objective of eradicating statelessness by 2024.

]]>The title of Janine di Giovanni’s devastating new book, “The Morning They Came for Us,” refers to those terrible moments in ordinary Syrians’ lives when the war in their country becomes personal. Those moments when there is a knock on the door and the police or intelligence services take a family member away. Those moments when a government-delivered barrel bomb falls on your home, your school, your hospital, and daily life is forever ruptured.

“The water stops, taps run dry, banks go, and a sniper kills your brother,” she writes. Garbage is everywhere because there are no longer any functioning city services, and entire neighborhoods are turned into fields of rubble. Victorian diseases like polio, typhoid and cholera resurface. Children wear rubber sandals in the winter cold because they do not have shoes. People are forced to do without “toothpaste, money, vitamins, birth-control pills, X-rays, chemotherapy, insulin, painkillers.”

In the five years since the Assad regime cracked down on peaceful antigovernment protests and the conflict escalated into full-blown civil war, more than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and some 12 million people — more than half the country’s prewar population — have been displaced, including five million who have fled to neighboring countries and to Europe in what the United Nations calls the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

In “The Morning They Came for Us,” Ms. di Giovanni gives us a visceral understanding of what it is like to live in wartime Syria, recounting some of the individual stories behind the numbing statistics: students who were whisked away by the police and interrogated and tortured; children who died from common infections because medicine and doctors were unavailable; women who were raped by soldiers at checkpoints and in jail; families who fled besieged cities like Homs, only to return because there was no place else to go.

]]>David Wise, F82, serves as Chief Executive Officer of Pharos Biologicals, LLC, which has been awarded the exclusive worldwide licenses for a patented DNA vaccine technology. The initial focus of the company is on the Zika vaccine development.

Wise is featured in this interview regarding the Zika testing with the local ABC news station with Dr. Tom August, that was aired Monday, May 16.

]]>Marine Lt. Col. Bennett W. Walsh, who has strong ties to the area, is the new superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home, said state Sen. Donald R. Humason, R-Westfield Wednesday.

Walsh is the son of Springfield City Councilor Kateri Walsh and Daniel Walsh, formerly the city of Springfield's veterans services director and a decorated Marine Corps veteran.

Walsh, a 24-year Marine veteran, was Gov. Charlie Baker's choice to be the new Holyoke Soldiers' Home superintendent, said Humason and state Rep. Aaron M. Vega, D-Holyoke. Walsh's salary and start date as superintendent were being discussed, officials said.

Walsh, of Beaufort, South Carolina, is currently executive officer with the U.S. Marine Corps at Parris Island. His extensive Marine experiences include being infantry platoon commander in Mogadishu, Somalia and commander of a combat deployment in in Al Anbar, Iraq, along with training and recruitment duties, according to Walsh's resume.

Walsh has a master's of arts in national security strategy from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a master's of arts in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and a bachelor's of arts in political science from Providence College in Rhode Island, according to his resume.

Read the full article ]]>In April, at the invitation of the Vatican, some 85 theologians, priests, bishops, religious sisters, and nonviolent activists (including representatives of the RECONCILE Peace Institute, Kairos Palestine, and the American Friends Service Committee) gathered at a modest retreat house on the outskirts of Rome with an unprecedented agenda: to challenge the Catholic Church’s doctrine of “just war.”

Developed in the fifth century A.D. by St. Augustine, the doctrine empowers rulers to wage war only as a last resort to confront grave wrongs. As he wrote: “Peace should be the object of your desire; war should be waged only as a necessity.” Later, the Summa Theologica, written by St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1260s and 1270s, clarified that war could only be waged by a properly instituted authority like the state, that it could not occur for purposes of self-gain, and that attaining peace must be its central aim.

Though the Catholic Church’s “just war” doctrine has been modified over the centuries — accounting for things like new technologies and the changing nature of warfare — its basic principles remain the same. As the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church describes, in order for the church to sanction engaging in a war, “the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain; all other means of putting an end to [the conflict] must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective; there must be serious prospects of success; [and] the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.”

But it seems that Pope Francis — who is by all accounts a progressive thinker, unafraid to challenge old church doctrines — might welcome a debate over the church’s foundational tenets on war and peace. “Faith and violence are incompatible,” he repeated in a 2013 mass prayer gathering at the Vatican. Like his predecessors of the past 50 years, he has called for the abolition of war. But this pontiff has gone one step further in pressing for nonviolent alternatives. In his letter to the Rome conference, he exhorted participants to revitalize the tools of “active nonviolence.” It was a call, in other words, to challenge the idea of “just war” and to propose an alternative paradigm.

]]>Amir Soltani recently directed and produced an award-winning documentary film called Dogtown Redemption. Dogtown Redemption tells the intimate story of shopping cart recyclers in West Oakland, CA—a journey through a landscape of love and loss, devotion and addiction, prejudice and poverty. Amir spent over 7 years of his life on this projectand it is an incredibly moving film.

This film will air on PBS on Monday, May 16 at 10 PM. Click here to read more about the film. ]]>The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University is pleased to present Rockford “Rocky” Weitz (F02, F08) with the inaugural Fletcher First Ten Award. Weitz has remained deeply involved in the Fletcher community since graduating while simultaneously pursuing groundbreaking ventures in entrepreneurship. Weitz currently serves as President of the Institute for Global Maritime Studies Inc., a non-profit that seeks practical solutions to global maritime challenges, and as President and CEO of Rhumb Line LLC, a consultancy that provides strategic advice to ports, governments and private companies improve their business strategies. The consultancy offers a global perspective and an interdisciplinary approach that combines practical maritime experience with political, historical, economic, business, engineering and legal analysis.

“Rocky personifies what we seek in graduates of The Fletcher School,” said Dean James Stavridis. “He is endlessly creative and innovative, and cares deeply about his fellow human beings. He is always ready to take on an important challenge to create real world benefits. Rocky is a leader, a superb colleague and a fearless innovator. We are lucky to count him as an alumnus of The Fletcher School.”

"I am deeply honored to receive this award,” said Weitz. “It is my great pleasure to be able to give back to the Fletcher community, which is full of so many inspiring individuals making the world a better place. I am particularly grateful to Priya Ghandikota (F02) for nominating me, and incredibly humbled, as she is such an accomplished classmate of mine."

After receiving his PhD from Fletcher in 2008, Weitz has continued to work closely with Fletcher students. He currently serves as Fletcher’s Entrepreneurship Coach, where he provides one-on-one coaching for students interested in entrepreneurial endeavors. He has also taken on the role as Director of Fletcher’s Maritime Studies Program, where he helps students, alumni, faculty and staff analyze and discuss global maritime affairs. In addition, Weitz has led and helped fund student research trips to Iceland, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

“We are thrilled to honor Rocky with the first annual Fletcher First Ten Award,” said Adam Treanor (F02), chair of the Fletcher Development Committee, which selected the recipient. “Rocky has played a central role in the Fletcher community both in and outside of the classroom. In addition to pursuing his own innovative ventures, Rocky has been active in recruiting and hiring Fletcher graduates, mentoring current students, and leading fundraising and professional development efforts for the school. Rocky exemplifies what it means to be a member of the Fletcher community.”

A great friend to the Fletcher Admissions Office, Weitz has remained highly committed to fundraising for Fletcher’s financial aid funds, and constantly works to promote the School around the world. He has also played a major role with Fletcher’s Office of Career Services—facilitating the hiring of numerous students into internships and full-time positions into organizations where he has worked, and continuously sharing potential employment opportunities with the Fletcher community.

The Fletcher First Ten Award recipient is chosen on the basis of a recent alumnus’s success beyond the classroom, as well as his or her contribution to the global Fletcher community since graduating. Individuals will be recognized based on their outstanding achievements, leadership or endeavors, and their efforts to give back to Fletcher in some way, such as through mentorship, recruitment or fundraising for the School.

]]>Shazia Rafi is a board member of The Campaign to Elect a Woman UN Secretary-General, a group of women from academia and civil society working to ensure that Ban Ki-moon’s replacement at the end of 2016 is a woman. Previously Rafi served as Secretary-General of Parliamentarians for Global Action, a nonprofit organization of elected legislators in over 140 countries that works to promote peace, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and gender equality. Rafi is a 1983 graduate of The Fletcher School.

Rafi sat down to discuss some of the changes in the UN Secretary-General election process, concerns over transparency and diplomatic negotiations in the process, and the significance of having a woman in the post.

FLETCHER FORUM: The previous process for selecting a Secretary-General came under criticism for a lack of transparency in how the Security Council made a decision in private and forwarded a single recommendation to the General Assembly for approval. How transparent do you expect the new process to be? Will it still defer to the same power players even if it’s done more in the open?

RAFI: There is a reality in the world now: everybody is constantly on social media, everyone is a known category, there are no hidden players anymore and everything else is taking place in a sort of fishbowl.So when it comes to the UN Secretary-General, it has been the only one out of every inter-governmental institution where there haven’t been open candidates campaigning. The change to a more open process was long overdue. The push has come from everybody. Even the P5 have become increasingly uncomfortable with their role as the ones producing the candidates.

Read the full interview ]]>The Taliban on April 12 announced the start of its annual spring offensive, which they are calling Operation Omari in honor of their former reclusive leader, Mullah Omar. It may be a decisive fighting season for Afghan or Taliban forces.

But the government forces won't be getting all the help they need from U.S. and coalition air power. There are too many conditions on when and how coalition air forces can go after the militants who are trying to retake Afghanistan. That should change.

Last year, there were record numbers of casualties among Afghan security forces and headline grabbing gains by Taliban forces, including the temporary fall in September of Kunduz, a major population center in northern Afghanistan. There is much blame to go around for the poor performance of Afghan forces, to include disunity within the National Unity Government led by President Ashraf Ghani and his chief executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah.

After Afghan forces took the lead from NATO and U.S. forces in combat operations in late 2014, NATO took on a a train, advise and assist mission under Operation Resolute Support. But the switch has resulted in a huge reduction of coalition air support.

Read the full op-ed ]]>Jill Van Den Brule, F02, is featured in Town and Country Magazine for her social entrepreneurial work. She has made the short list among many innovators as The Top Philanthropists of 2016. These individuals are changing the way philanthropy impacts communities around the world. Making headlines is not new to Jill, as her grand plan is to bring electricity to 1.5 billion people around the world. Read more here. ]]>According to the New York Times, U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima during next month’s G-7 summit in Japan. His doing so will be a welcome gesture that would encourage the nuclear nonproliferation regime, help strengthen the U.S.-Japanese alliance, and aid Washington’s rebalance to Asia, which depends on strong partnerships with regional allies. The timing couldn’t be better: all of those initiatives have been challenged by North Korea’s recent nuclear tests and China’s increasing military assertiveness in the South China Sea.

A number of different groups, including U.S. veterans, Washington Republicans, and regional powers in Asia, fear that a presidential trip to Hiroshima, no matter how carefully choreographed, will be taken as an official state apology for the U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II—something that politicians on both sides of the aisle have been loath to give. The reasoning is understandable: it would be difficult to visit such an emotionally and historically charged site without expressing remorse simply by being present, and even the appearance of an apology would dishonor the sacrifice of the tens of thousands of American soldiers who died in the Pacific War.

It could also give credence to Japanese ultranationalists who seek to revise Japan’s World War II history. Indeed, since the war, Japan has struggled to come to terms with its own wartime activities. For example, Abe’s trip to the United States in May 2015 was marked by omission and equivocations during his speeches on Japanese war crimes during World War II. Japanese ultranationalists have sought to exonerate Japan from the Nanjing massacre, a mass murder and rape that killed anywhere from 40,000 to 300,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians; the Bataan Death March, in which Japanese soldiers forced U.S. and Filipino troops to march 65 miles to prison camps in the Philippines; and the comfort women system, the institutionalized prostitution of women and children in Japanese-occupied territories. Abe himself has sought to soften the language used to describe the comfort women system on multiple occasions—asking the U.N. to retract a part of its 1996 report on wartime brothels, and asking officials to persuade textbook publishers to revise passages about the practice.

Read the full op-ed ]]>The technology gap between the U.S. and its adversaries, namely Russia and China, is slowly beginning to shrink. As mobile technology and processors become cheaper and computing power increases, our adversaries overseas are slowly developing and modernizing their militaries’ to include new electronic warfare capabilities, ballistic missile systems, precision strike capabilities, and hypersonic weapons.

"Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. military has never really had to fight an enemy that had its own arsenal of precision-guided weapons," said Mark Gunzinger, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Embroiled in counterinsurgency operations for the last 15 years, the U.S. is steadily falling behind in countering new weapons technology developments from China to Russia, coupled with an antiquated acquisitions process; the U.S may soon find itself incapable of engaging in industrial state warfare while maintaining the strategic and tactical upper-hand.

Read the full op-ed ]]>Two themes run through Reeta Roy’s family story. One is hard work; the other is migration.

Roy’s father, Durgadas, grew up in Dhaka, then capital of India’s Eastern Bengal province. During the 1947 Partition, the Hindu family fled as refugees to Calcutta, where Durgadas was studying medicine. After graduating, without telling his parents, he hopped a boat to Malaysia, where he had heard that good jobs awaited.

“He sent home a postcard a month later,” says his daughter. “It took his mother a long time to forgive him.”

Reeta Roy’s mother, Sian Yin (Emily) Chen, grew up in a Chinese Taoist family in southern Thailand. Chen’s father made a fortune, opening small shops along an expanding railway line, but during the Depression he lost it all, and ended up making soap for a living. While he had sent 10 worthy boys to China on scholarships, he never sent his own daughter because he didn’t think girls merited an education. Chen was determined to become independent. When she heard Malaysia was training foreign nurses, she bought a train ticket for Penang.

Read the full article ]]>Paul Schulte (F88) recently spoke with The Economic Times about the current state of the global markets, including how the Indian financials are pulling ahead globally.

]]>One of things I love writing about is leadership through examples and experiences. And why so? Because for years I have been intrigued by how dense the notion of leadership has been in the gazillion books and speeches. Thanks to this column I have had the good fortune of speaking to so many personalities and realised how leadership is about simplicity and clarity of thought. So here I am with pickings of what some of my power turks think of leading.

Shashi Tharoor

"Money has never been able to motivate me. I got through both of the IIMs that existed in those days — I was first in the list for Calcutta and second in the list for Ahmedabad but I didn't actually take them up. I preferred studying international relations." He pursued the subject at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. While there, he received the Robert B. Stewart Prize for Best Student and also helped found and serve as the first editor of the Fletcher Forum of International Affairs. "From childhood I was always motivated by the idea of doing something for my country. I philosophically believed that the justification for being on this planet ought to be related to your ability to do something for the people around you. And so, I was active in the college union in the same spirit. I was an active debater, a writer."Read the full article

]]>More than three decades have passed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. In that time, theories of modern revolution would suggest a retreat from ideological goals, heralding a phase of institutional development. However, Hamad Albloshi argues that Iran is unique: the current rhetoric of conservative Iranian leaders implies the regime has not left its revolutionary stage. Through an examination of the hardline conservative ideology in Iran-personified by the former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-this book explores how the usual development seen in revolutions from radical discourse to pragmatic rhetoric has not been the case in Iran. Albloshi explores the evolution of the hardline conservatives and their main ideas about the nature of the Iranian regime, their position toward other groups within the system and their approach to the international community. By doing so, he sheds new light on the group's position in the country and the ideological roots of major shifts that occurred in Iran's internal and external policies in the period between 2005 and 2013. ]]>Vicki Assevero is an international lawyer who, four years ago, founded the Green Market Santa Cruz as an experimental social enterprise to test some of the ideas explored at Rio+20, where she represented the New York City Bar Association’s International Environmental Committee.

The main focus for Assevero and her team has been on changing existing patterns of production and consumption by creating direct links between farmers, producers and consumers, and fostering land-based entrepreneurship all in an effort towards strengthening community-based sustainability. The Green Market recently issued an “Eat Local Challenge” during the month of April and has been organising a series of Edible Talks highlighting interconnections among agriculture, ecology, health and nutrition.

Assevero, who has made T&T her home, has practised law in Abidjan, Ivory Coast with Duncan and Allen representing major US petrochemical and other corporate clients and most recently, she began developing new collaborative models among governments, non-governmental organisations and businesses in order to make the delivery of international development assistance more efficient through her work with Millennium Promise, a non-profit related to The Earth Institute at Columbia University. She continues as a consultant to LEX Caribbean.

She graduated from Yale College with a BA cum laude in philosophy, from Harvard Law School and from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (LLM in Sustainable Development Diplomacy) in 2010, where she focused on legal and governance issues related to non-state environmental actors.

Her interest in sustainable development revolves around the design and legitimacy of global and local democratic governance procedures.

]]>The Senate finally confirmed Roberta Jacobson to be the U.S. ambassador to Mexico on Thursday, ending a months-long delay of her nomination that was ultimately resolved by a complicated deal that drew in two Senate Republicans who had vied for president.

Jacobson, a top State Department official, had faced objections from senators related to her work on implementing the Obama administration’s controversial policy normalizing relations with Cuba. In November, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who at the time was deep into his presidential run, put a hold on her nomination while publicly criticizing her work at State.

But the wheels began to turn toward getting Jacobson installed this month, after Rubio returned to the Senate following his failed presidential bid. Senate GOP leaders and the White House approached Rubio, asking him what would make him lift his Jacobson blockade, according to a Senate aide.

Rubio’s ask: an extension of a 2014 law he wrote that imposed sanctions on key officials in Venezuela, home to another regime that has been the target of Rubio’s wrath.

Read the full article ]]>Sean Randolph, who lives and breathes public policy issues, brings that passion to his role as senior director of the Bay Area Council's Economic Institute. With an educational background in economics, along with multiple stints in the legislative and administrative branches of the federal and California state governments, Randolph is well-positioned to keep his finger on the pulse of the Bay Area economy and to assess the region's economic health. This news organization recently spoke with Randolph about an array of economic and policy issues. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What's your assessment of the Bay Area employment picture?

A: The job market in the Bay Area is very strong. It is likely to stay that way through the rest of this year.

Q: How does the Bay Area employment picture stack up against the nation?

A: Unemployment will continue to fall. The Bay Area is one of the strongest job markets in the country.

Read the full interview ]]>F. Haydn Williams, a former Defense Department official and president of the Asia Foundation who spearheaded efforts to build the National World War II Memorial on the Mall, died April 22 at his home in San Francisco. He was 96.

The cause was heart disease, said a great-niece, Katie Evans.

During a long career in international development and diplomacy, Dr. Williams held academic posts and served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense under presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. From 1964 to 1989, he was president of the Asia Foundation, a San Francisco-based organization providing international development support to countries in Asia...

...As a Navy officer during World War II, Dr. Williams participated in air evacuations of U.S. prisoners of war held by the Japanese. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1946 and received master’s and doctoral degrees in 1947 and 1958, respectively, from the Fletcher School, a graduate program of international studies at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

He held teaching and administrative positions at the Fletcher School before serving as deputy assistant secretary of defense for national and international security from 1958 to 1962.

]]>Spring has finally arrived, and with it, the beginning of another bloody season of fighting between the Taliban and the Afghan central government. On April 12, the Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive — this year, dubbed “Operation Omari,” in homage to the deceased former leader Mullah Mohammad Omar — in what could be a decisive year for both the Kabul-based government and the Taliban. A relative period of calm had permeated the battlefields, from the Helmand Valley to northern Kunduz province. An eerie stillness lingered in the aftermath of one of the bloodiest fighting seasons since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001. That stillness was shattered on the morning of April 19, when the Taliban carried out its worst attack on Kabul, the capital, since 2011, killing over two dozen people and wounding more than 300 others.

Kabul need merely survive — as stated by Nicholas Haysom, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative and head of the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) — and maintain the status quo on the battlefield. Last year’s fighting saw the temporary collapse of Kunduz, a feat NATO and U.S. commanders had claimed was impossible, and major land grabs in Helmand and northern Afghanistan, which are key areas of poppy production and financing operations for the Taliban. Indeed, recent reports have the Taliban now in control of five of Helmand’s 14 districts. The Taliban has slowly regained an almost-equal footing in any negotiations, eliminating much of the coalition’s previous gains in the region, thereby removing much of the incentive to negotiate with Kabul. The government will need to limit any further gains by the Taliban in order to convince its leadership that entering negotiations is in its best interests.

President Ashraf Ghani’s National Unity Government will need to focus on several key points if it wishes to survive the 2016 fighting season and convince the Taliban to negotiate.

]]>Daniel Reifsnyder sat at the center of a wide dais in a cavernous former airplane hangar, his image projected onto four giant screens above hundreds of diplomats from around the globe. It was early December, and the officials had gathered in France, a country still reeling from terrorist attacks just three weeks before, with the hope of crafting the first climate change agreement to involve all the nations of the world.

For the past year, Reifsnyder, F14, had been co-chairing the negotiations leading up to this United Nations conference, which was the result of a 2011 U.N. commitment to reach a universal climate deal by 2015. As the summit drew nearer, it was common to hear it described as our last best chance to save ourselves from an apocalyptic future of our own making. “Never have the stakes of an international meeting been so high,” French President Francois Hollande said at the conference’s opening plenary, “since what is at stake is the future of the planet, the future of life.”

To protect the future of life, and to avoid devastating floods, droughts, food and water shortages, and destructive storms caused by climate change, scientists reckon that we’ll need to keep the increase in our steadily rising global temperature to just 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above the average from the late nineteenth century. That will require drastically reducing our carbon emissions. Agreeing on how, exactly, to do that was the job of the diplomats at this conference...

...The mood in the room wasn’t exactly panic, but few at the conference were feeling entirely optimistic about the prospects for a deal. “I don’t think there’s going to be an agreement,” Fletcher professor Kelly Sims Gallagher, who has been involved in climate change negotiations since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, said at one point. “The text is in terrible shape. I don’t see how they’ll get from here to there.”

Gallagher, F00, F03, was instrumental in securing the landmark 2014 U.S.-China climate deal. She spent a year helping the Obama administration develop the agreement on emissions and a new U.S.-led public-private partnership to help poorer nations cope with the changing climate.

Each year, Gallagher teaches a Fletcher class on climate change and clean energy policy that includes a simulation of climate negotiations. Ahead of the Paris conference, her students conducted a simulation of the coming talks, using the actual draft text that Reifsnyder had been working on. Playing the roles of Reifsnyder and Djoghlaf were Lisa Tessier, F16, from France, and Tarun Gopalakrishnan, F16, from India. Over two class sessions devoted to the simulation, they had no luck coming up with a deal that their fellow students, portraying diplomats from around the world, would agree to. In fact, they made less progress than any of Gallagher’s previous classes. The barriers to the students reaching an accord included everything from the text itself to intransigent negotiators blocking compromise. Their experience, Gallagher noted, was just like that of real U.N. negotiators. “Maybe this reflects what we should expect,” she said of the upcoming conference.

]]>In a speech Friday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis characterized Iran as the greatest threat in the Middle East and disparaged the nuclear agreement signed by the U.S. and Iran this fall.

During the speech, Mattis described Iran as a rogue state bent on upending order in the Middle East. His evidence: Iran’s support for the Assad regime in Syria; its backing of Shia militias and death squads, from Yemen to Iraq; the continuation of its ballistic missile program, and its shore-based anti-ship missile defense strategy in the Gulf. At face value, these events surely paint Iran in negative light, a rogue actor sowing chaos in an effort to flex its muscles in the region.

What Mattis gets wrong about Iran is that it is a reactionary regional player attempting to deal with the massive power vacuum created by the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, as well as the rebalancing of U.S. national strategic interests toward the Asia-Pacific region as it takes center stage for American foreign policy.

Read the full op-ed ]]>On a March afternoon at The Black Whale restaurant on New Bedford’s waterfront, steps away from docked fishing boats, Chris Rezendes signaled to waitstaff as his party gathered for lunch.

He was going to need more tables.

Guests included Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director for the city’s Harbor Development Commission; Kevin Stokesbury, chairman of the Department of Fisheries Oceanography at UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology (SMAST); John Haran, manager of fishery Sector 13 and newly elected member of Dartmouth’s Select Board; and Rezendes, founder of INEX Advisors and an affiliated Internet connectivity company, IoT Impact LABS, based in New Bedford.

Also present for the informal lunch were representatives from computer giant Dell and several other tech firms....

...Anthes-Washburn said he’s had informal discussions about sensor development with Blue Water Metrics, a startup that’s working to “capture data on weather systems, offshore energy, ocean health, and more,” according to its website, www.bluewatermetrics.com. Such sensors could be placed on fishing boats, tugs and even ferries, Anthes-Washburn suggested, to collect ocean data that, potentially, could be sold and create a new source of revenue for boat owners.

Blue Water co-founders include students and researchers at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Dr. Rockford Weitz, director of that school’s maritime studies program. Weitz — Anthes-Washburn’s brother-in-law — also is president of the Institute for Global Maritime Studies, an educational nonprofit that seeks solutions to ocean-related problems and announced in February that it was moving from Gloucester to New Bedford.

“Their interaction has been a lot with Chris (Rezendes) down here, and I’ve been helping them make that connection,” Anthes-Washburn said.

]]>During the speech, Mattis described Iran as a rogue state bent on upending order in the Middle East. His evidence: Iran’s support for the Assad regime in Syria; its backing of Shia militias and death squads, from Yemen to Iraq; the continuation of its ballistic missile program, and its shore-based anti-ship missile defense strategy in the Gulf. At face value, these events surely paint Iran in negative light, a rogue actor sowing chaos in an effort to flex its muscles in the region.

What Mattis gets wrong about Iran is that it is a reactionary regional player attempting to deal with the massive power vacuum created by the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, as well as the rebalancing of U.S. national strategic interests toward the Asia-Pacific region as it takes center stage for American foreign policy.

It is overly simplistic to paint Iran as the main antagonist in the Middle East. The more complex picture involves the interests and politics of other regional players, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Iran must react to and balance the interests of all key players involved in the region. The subsequent power vacuum following the U.S. withdrawal has forced the big three — Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran — to reorganize their foreign policy and interests in the region.

Read the full op-ed here. ]]>On a typical day, how many distinct customer experiences do you think you have? I’m talking about all of the people, products, services, processes, brands, buildings, and modes of transportation that you encounter each day. What do you think? One hundred? Two hundred? Try up to 5,000.

When you factor in getting out of bed, dressing, preparing breakfast and lunch, and making it to work, I have as many as 120 of these experiences in just the first ninety minutes of my day. Some of these experiences are really good—like how quickly I can get hot water for my shower or how easily I can read the news on my mobile phone—while others are pretty bad, such as how hard it is to remove used coffee grounds from my coffee maker. As my day continues, I have customer experiences with software, computers, notebooks, pens, internet providers, restaurants, bathrooms, cars, subways, retail stores, the electric company, and lots of other things.

Actually, we’re all having customer experiences all day long, in just about everything we do. Yet many of them feel glitchy and less than satisfying because, too often, companies don’t stand in their customers’ shoes to really understand how they experience the, well, experience.

But that’s beginning to change. Lately, businesses have begun thinking more about how customers will actually use their products, services, and processes. The basic idea is that everything should be designed with people’s real lives, emotions, and behaviors in mind. My firm helps companies with this important task, showing them how they can delight their customers, and thereby increase loyalty, grow revenues, and produce a more secure future. How does that work in the real world?

]]>When you meet Derreck Kayongo for the first time (and every time thereafter), as this tall, 46-year-old native of Uganda smiles and extends the long fingers of his right hand to shake yours, you might eye him from head to toe in amazement.

Kayongo, the chief executive officer of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, has a unique sartorial style, as members of the Jewish community have seen recently at such events as Am Yisrael Chai’s Daffodil Dash and City Winery’s Freedom Seder.

Sitting for an interview, he wore black shoes, gray socks with large circles of pink and yellow, red plaid pants, a form-fitting dark-blue jacket with brass buttons and epaulets, a flourishing pocket square, a dark-blue tie with pink figures on it, and a pink-checked shirt with a white collar. He sported rings on his pinkies, one a distinctive oval of copper and the other an animal head.

His mother, Miriam, is a seamstress who used her little boy as a mannequin. Shortly before the interview, he had talked with her on the phone. “If she showed up and saw me with my pocket and my socks, she’d be very elated,” he said, laughing.

Kayongo laughs easily and generously. When he speaks, whether the subject is human rights or table tennis (not “pingpong”), passion and enthusiasm are clear in his voice. Less than a month before Passover, the conversation focused on the holiday’s theme of liberation, his personal liberation story, his perspective on the Jewish community and his vision for the center.

Read the full article ]]>invested on behalf of HM King Michael I of Romania with the order of COROANA ROMANIEI with the rank of Cavalier. The order was presented to him by the Custodian of the Crown, HRH Princess Margarita of Romania for services brought to the Crown, Royal Family, and the Country over 25 years. The ceremonies took place at the Royal Castle of Peles in the presence of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, among others. ]]> Ismat Jahan (F86) has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the United Kingdom. She is currently serving as Bangladesh Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union. ]]>Across the Department of Defense, the use of wargaming to address difficult problems has been revived. Over the past year, DOD has called on wargaming to explore and develop innovative strategies and technologies in a variety of areas against a variety of opponents. It has identified some key challenges in both Europe and the Pacific. Fundamentally, wargames allow commanders and decision-makers to think through complex problems well before the shooting starts, when the most dangerous threat is a cup of coffee being spilled on the map rather than an incoming artillery barrage.

The revitalization of wargaming over the past year was no accident, and continued future emphasis on wargaming within the department is not a given. Driven by the personal interest of Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, wargaming has proven valuable because the leadership has insisted that decision-makers make the time, space, and effort to take advantage of what it offers. But as everyone knows, this is an election year, and with an election comes change. While the next leadership cohort will bring its own knowledge and expertise, they may not intuitively understand what wargaming has to offer.

For those who believe that wargaming is a useful and important tool in defense decision-making, we should think about how to best communicate its benefits to this next group of leaders. While those who see value in wargaming might hold different views of the various roles of wargaming, we likely agree that it matters, meaning that it can help DOD better accomplish its mission while minimizing the costs in lives, money, and time. To this end, there are three reasons why a senior DOD official should be interested in wargaming and willing to commit his or her precious time to the endeavor: It helps leaders make decisions, it reduces the number of “unknown unknowns,” and it can overcome stove piping.

]]>Across the Department of Defense, the use of wargaming to address difficult problems has been revived. Over the past year, DOD has called on wargaming to explore and develop innovative strategies and technologies in a variety of areas against a variety of opponents. It has identified some key challenges in both Europe and the Pacific. Fundamentally, wargames allow commanders and decision-makers to think through complex problems well before the shooting starts, when the most dangerous threat is a cup of coffee being spilled on the map rather than an incoming artillery barrage.

The revitalization of wargaming over the past year was no accident, and continued future emphasis on wargaming within the department is not a given. Driven by the personal interest of Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, wargaming has proven valuable because the leadership has insisted that decision-makers make the time, space, and effort to take advantage of what it offers. But as everyone knows, this is an election year, and with an election comes change. While the next leadership cohort will bring its own knowledge and expertise, they may not intuitively understand what wargaming has to offer.

For those who believe that wargaming is a useful and important tool in defense decision-making, we should think about how to best communicate its benefits to this next group of leaders. While those who see value in wargaming might hold different views of the various roles of wargaming, we likely agree that it matters, meaning that it can help DOD better accomplish its mission while minimizing the costs in lives, money, and time. To this end, there are three reasons why a senior DOD official should be interested in wargaming and willing to commit his or her precious time to the endeavor: It helps leaders make decisions, it reduces the number of “unknown unknowns,” and it can overcome stovepiping.

]]>Militancy in Egypt’s North Sinai governorate—a serious problem since that country’s January 2011 uprising—was compounded in November 2014 when Ansar Bayt al Maqdis (“Supporters of Jerusalem”, ABM), the main salafi jihadist organisation in Sinai, swore allegiance to the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS). This Research Paper closely inspects ABM/Wilayat Sinai and ways in which the group changed over three phases of its existence: from the 2011 uprising to Morsi’s 2013 ouster, from that point until the group’s pledge to IS in 2014, and since the emergence of Islamic State affiliate Wilayat Sinai. This in-depth documentation is meant to serve as a case study of the impact that affiliating with IS has on local salafi jihadist groups.

]]>In the latest incident of aggressive Russian probing of American military assets, a Defense Department official said Wednesday that two Russian military jets engaged in an “aggressive” overflight maneuver of a U.S. Navy vessel sailing in international waters off the Russian coast.

The official, speaking on background, said the two jets flew uncomfortably close to a U.S. guided-missile destroyer in what the official called “simulated attack profiles” in Tuesday’s incident.

The Russian Su-24 jets were not armed, but the fly-by was so close that the planes created a “wake in the water” near the USS Donald Cook, according to wire-service accounts from both Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

The Pentagon said the Russians also dispatched a Ka-27 Helix helicopter, which took photographs of the Cook while it circled the vessel seven times.

The USS Donald Cook is now operating in the Baltic Sea after leaving the port of Gdynia, Poland earlier this week, according to the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet website. The same destroyer encountered similar close passes by a Russian fighter jet in the Black Sea in April 2014 when it was deployed in international waters.

​As tensions between Moscow and the West have soared in recent years, the Russian air force has repeatedly tested the defenses of NATO forces in Europe, including incursions into NATO country airspace and simulated attacks on the alliance’s warships.

]]>Recently, the UK’s steel industry has been dogged by news of closures or sell-offs, with thousands of jobs at risk.

This is a sad story: the pioneer of the modern steel industry – once the world’s factory, churning out almost half of global steel production in the latter half of the 19th century – is shrinking and bogged down in difficulties.

However, it is regrettable that some people in Britain blame China for what is happening in the British steel industry and accuse China of “dumping” steels in Britain and pricing local companies out of the steel market.

Making China the “scapegoat” only misleads the public and contributes nothing to the solution of the problem. As Chinese Ambassador, I believe it is my duty to share with the British public what I see as the multiple reasons behind the sluggishness in Britain’s steel industry.

First of all, the shrinking steel sector tallies with the general trend in advanced economies where traditional manufacturing has been replaced by a modern services and financial sector. Sheffield’s transformation from a steel-making city to a sport and education hub is a case in point.

Read the full article here. ]]>The Economic Times recently interviewed Paul Schulte (F88) about weakness in the dollar index and global volatility, as well as the impact that the Panama Papers' leak has had on the global economy.

]]>presented his credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor and Country Director, ad interim, in UNDP Tajikistan and UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP/UNFPA Resident Representative in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. ]]>Fred Bergsten (F62, F69) has been awarded the Gwanghwa Medal of the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit from South Korea for his contribution to the country's economic development and to the relations between the United States and South Korea.
]]>During the 2012 U.S. presidential election, President Obama mocked Republican Mitt Romney’s assertion that Russia is America’s chief geopolitical foe.

The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years,” Obama told Romney during a presidential debate.

Four years later, Romney is likely feeling vindicated.

Russia has annexed Crimea, and Moscow’s intervention in Syria put Russia at loggerheads with Turkey, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...

...“I doubt [the ERI] will provoke any significant response from Russia, which has serious financial problems due to sanctions and low oil prices,” retired Adm. James Stavridis, former supreme allied commander of NATO, wrote in an email to The Diplomat. Regardless of Russia’s reaction, the big boost in funding for the ERI is the right call, he said.

The Obama administration “is awakening to the reality that Europe and the Middle East will continue to matter deeply and require U.S. engagement and leadership,” wrote Stavridis, now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. “NATO is the central security pillar for doing so.”

]]>The U.S. government has been unable to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on the one battlefield it currently commands: the Internet. For proof, look no further than the U.S. State Department’s August 2014 “Welcome to ‘Islamic State’ Land” YouTube video, a counterterrorism blunder nearly as inexcusable as the flawed intelligence reports that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq...

...Farah Pandith, an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former official in the Bush and Obama administrations, compared this customization to Internet marketing. “They learn what’s working, they take away what isn’t,” she said, “and they are developing—as any marketer … or any advertiser would do—a way to appeal to the millennial generation that makes sense for them...”

...Whether they’re cynical Internet contractors or committed fanboys, ISIS propagandists spread their messages by exploiting two inescapable aspects of social media: virality and echo chambers. Their reliance on virality often leads to jarring tweets, as they combine videos of beheadings with trending hashtags. Beutel has seen ISIS messengers tag extremist content with the hashtags for major soccer matches. They also incorporate memes and current events into their posts. “When something happens in real life,” Pandith said, “they’re grabbing stills and images [from news footage], so that people feel like they’re keeping up with them...”

...In the nearly 15 years since Al Qaeda brought down the Twin Towers, the United States and its allies have spent more money and energy fighting the kinetic war than the ideological war. This approach both takes resources away from anti-extremism propaganda efforts and provides the fodder for the very propaganda ISIS and terrorism organizations use to entice new recruits.

“We haven’t been able to integrate the so-called ‘soft power’ approach hand-in-hand with the ‘hard power’ approach,” said Pandith. “So you see a very precise and very evaluated and very strategic set of goals and missions and plans for hard power. You do not see the same thing in the soft-power arena.”

]]>In his 19 years with the International Rescue Committee, Kurt Tjossem has worked in some of the world’s most war-torn nations. He vividly remembers the “night commuters” in northern Uganda in 2004. The Lord’s Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony, locked in a fight against the Ugandan government, would overrun villages and abduct children, some of whom were forced to become soldiers or sex slaves.

Up to 10,000 children would come into the town of Kitgum at night because it was safer there than in their villages, Mr. Tjossem recalls. “The children wanted to be closer to the streetlights, because they were doing their homework. They would do what they could to further their education,” he says. Witnessing this episode “reinvigorated my faith in humanity,” he says.

The IRC, a nonprofit founded in 1933, helps refugees by providing health care, water and sanitation, education, economic support and protection for women and children. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Mr. Tjossem is the IRC’s regional director for the Horn and East Africa region, which includes 10 countries ranging from Ethiopia and Somalia to South Sudan, Burundi and Yemen. The 47-year-old Minnesota native travels at least once a month for work, sometimes more. The IRC has 68 field sites in his region and he has been to most of them.

Read the full article (subscription required) ]]>The Wall Street Journal published an article about Kurt Tjossem (F94), the IRC’s regional director for the Horn and East Africa region, and how he travels when he visits humanitarian missions. ]]>Nahid Bhadelia (F04) recently gave a TEDx Talk on "Fear and Stigma in the Age of Ebola," which defined her work on Ebola response as she served as a frontline physician during the recent Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

]]>It was August 2014 and the Ebola epidemic was hitting West Africa with force when Dr. Nahid Bhadelia first arrived in Sierra Leone.

During her time in West Africa, she helped treat more than 500 patients – and set up a crowd-funding source for the local healthcare workers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, Sierra Leone was the epicenter of the recent outbreak, with 14,124 suspected cases of the virus, 8,706 cases confirmed by a laboratory and 3,959 deaths. Only Liberia saw more deaths from the disease in 2014.

Bhadelia, a graduate of Brookline High School, Class of 1995, was recently awarded the Tuft’s University Fletcher Women’s Leadership Award for her “extra ordinary efforts to combat the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.”

Before the outbreak, Bhadelia’s efforts were focused on national issues of infectious disease. She is the medical director of the Special Pathogens Patient Care Unit at Boston Medical Center.

]]>Principal Private Secretary to the President by the Commander-in-Chief of the Rwanda Defence Forces. ]]>executed a search warrant in the town of Verviers. Officials learned that the assailants were members of a terrorist cell that had been planning a significant attack on Belgian police officers or civilians.

The incident changed the way counterterrorism officials perceived the Islamic State threat in Europe and made clear that Belgium itself had a greater problem on its hands than it realized.

Before the plot was disrupted, the United States Department of Homeland Security would later explain, nearly all of about a dozen Islamic State plots and attacks in the West had involved lone assailants or small groups. But, the report presciently warned, “the involvement of a large number of operatives and group leaders based in multiple countries in future ISIL-linked plotting could create significant obstacles in the detection and disruption” of new plots.

Indeed, that is now the case, and as the investigation of the even more brutal November attacks in Paris showed, Belgium is a major source of the threat. The attacks on Tuesday in Brussels raised the most serious questions about how prepared the nation was for that threat.

Read the full op-ed here. ]]>Hassan Abbas (F02) testified in front of the United States Congress House Committee on Foreign Affairs to make a case for a more extensive & expanded role for women in the policing and law enforcement field in South Asia & Middle East.

]]>Over three billion users access the internet today, compared to a measly 400 million in 2000. As the internet creates new opportunities for countries across the world, it also creates a whole host of challenges in the cyber realm. The anonymity offered by the internet, and its disregard for national boundaries, a revolutionary trait, is now becoming a military challenge. To ensure long-term security of its military and civilian infrastructure, Pakistan must implement a forward-looking strategy to deal with these cyber threats.

When US director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, was asked about the threats faced by the United States, he placed cyber at the top. “Cyber threats,” he said, “to US national and economic security are increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication and severity of impact; [and] the ranges of cyber threat actors, methods of attack, targeted systems and victims are also expanding.” The United States is not the only country facing this challenge; all leading economies of the world are wary of the real danger they face in cyberspace.

Starting with the Stuxnet attack on Iran in January 2009, the scale and damage caused by cyberattacks has grown tremendously. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, the United States and Israel all have robust and indigenous cyber warfare capabilities. Under the Modi government, India has also started work on developing its own cyber capabilities. Pakistan has been lagging behind and has so far failed to develop and implement any robust policy framework directed at emerging cyber challenges.

Read the full article here. ]]>Today the International Criminal Court reached an historic decision, finding former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of murder, rape and pillaging during the 2002 – 2003 conflict in the Central African Republic. This decision is historic for two big reasons. First, it marks the the first time the ICC has found a commander guilty for actions committed by his troops. They did so under the theory of “command responsibility,” making a leader criminally liable for the crimes committed by his troops. Perhaps even more significantly, this verdict marks the first ICC conviction for rape and gender based violence. In other words, a commander was just held criminally liable for the rapes committed by his troops.

The unanimous decision by the Trial Chamber marks a significant step forward for the ICC in breaking new ground in international law. But it also highlights how important the diversity of jurists is in holding leaders responsible for their crimes. Three justices, all women, presided over the trial and rendered the precedent-setting verdict. That may have made a difference...

...Today, while watching the summary of the verdict against Bemba being read, it was impossible to ignore that the proceedings were overseen by three women judges: Judge Sylvia Steiner of Brazil, Judge Joyce Aluoch of Kenya and Judge Kuniko Ozaki of Japan. All three of the justices are well respected with distinguished legal careers in their own countries and on the international stage. But in reading the findings – where the court found that not only was rape committed against numerous women and men by the forces commanded by Bemba, but that these forms of sexual violence were part of the modus operandi of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) troops that he led – one can’t help but wonder if a panel of three men would have come to the same conclusion. International criminal law has made tremendous strides in the last 20 years in recognizing the real injury and trauma that sexual violence inflicts on its victims, but it is also fighting centuries of established norms where rape was seen as a regrettable, but acceptable, part of war.

]]>I have worked for the United Nations for most of the last three decades. I was a human rights officer in Haiti in the 1990s and served in the former Yugoslavia during the Srebrenica genocide. I helped lead the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami and the Haitian earthquake, planned the mission to eliminate Syrian chemical weapons, and most recently led the Ebola mission in West Africa. I care deeply for the principles the United Nations is designed to uphold.

And that’s why I have decided to leave.

The world faces a range of terrifying crises, from the threat of climate change to terrorist breeding grounds in places like Syria, Iraq and Somalia. The United Nations is uniquely placed to meet these challenges, and it is doing invaluable work, like protecting civilians and delivering humanitarian aid in South Sudan and elsewhere. But in terms of its overall mission, thanks to colossal mismanagement, the United Nations is failing.

Six years ago, I became an assistant secretary general, posted to the headquarters in New York. I was no stranger to red tape, but I was unprepared for the blur of Orwellian admonitions and Carrollian logic that govern the place. If you locked a team of evil geniuses in a laboratory, they could not design a bureaucracy so maddeningly complex, requiring so much effort but in the end incapable of delivering the intended result. The system is a black hole into which disappear countless tax dollars and human aspirations, never to be seen again.

Read the full article ]]>“We are what we pretend to be,” Kurt Vonnegut once wrote. “So we must be careful what we pretend to be.” There’s little chance that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ever come across this line - American literature does not appear to be among his interests. But you have to wonder if the words would evoke a rueful smile of recognition. Or perhaps he wouldn’t raise an eyebrow. Perhaps, after 17 years in power, he is too far gone.

Putin’s ability to stay on top – to gain more masterful control of his country than even some of his Soviet predecessors ever did – owes much to his capacity to play pretend. Through his near-total control of the media, his carefully managed public image, and his skillful deployment of the most emotionally resonant symbols of Russian history, Putin has created an alternate reality – a “Russian world” of the mind – in which the country is proudly united at home and virtuously reasonable on the world stage. And in which he is its savior. Having obliged the Russian people to play pretend along with him, Putin has earned an immense, enduring popularity that even the present economic crisis has not yet dented. (Just because the enthusiasm is artificial doesn’t mean it isn’t real.)

Putin’s alternate reality isn’t the same world the rest of us inhabit. It is one in which the brutal subjugation of Chechnya was no different than Western anti-terrorism efforts; in which MH-117 was shot down by Ukrainians, not by Russian separatists; and in which the "Crimean Spring” was a spontaneous grassroots movement.

]]>Dr. Evelyne Schmid's (F08) book, "Taking Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Seriously in International Criminal Law," has won the Christiane Rajewsky Prize from the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies.

The Rajewsky Prize is aimed at younger researchers or initiatives that have made an outstanding contribution to peace and conflict studies.

The prize has been awarded since 1993 in memory of the deceased peace researcher Christiane Rajewsky and is given to a researcher that has made ​​an outstanding contribution as a professor of political science at the Department of Social Work at the University of Applied Sciences Dusseldorf.

]]>Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, of Brookline, has been named the winner of the third annual Fletcher Women’s Leadership Award. The award was established in 2014 by the Fletcher Board of Advisors and the school’s executive leadership to honor outstanding female graduates who are making a meaningful impact in the world in the private, public and nongovernmental organization sectors.

In August 2014, with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa prompting a global intervention, Bhadelia traveled to Sierra Leone to serve on a World Health Organization team treating patients at a government hospital’s Ebola treatment unit in Kenema, some four hours east of the capital Freetown. She spent 12 days in and out of Ebola wards, in high-tech biohazard safety suits and surrounded by the disease and other workers, both local and foreigners. She went back three more times in 2014 and 2015, working with the Boston-based NGO Partners in Health to help provide guidance to health care workers on proper techniques to protect themselves from contamination.

As regards the two-year-old conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the president said Ukraine is a core interest for Moscow, in a way that it is not for the United States. He noted that, since Ukraine does not belong to NATO, it is vulnerable to Russian military domination, and that “we have to be very clear about what our core interests are and what we are willing to go to war for."

It is hard to dispute these points… except that the president set up a straw man. The United States could have done more to help Kyiv resist the Kremlin’s aggression without a war with Russia.

]]>Nahid Bhadelia (J ’99, F ’04, M ’05) was honored at the third Fletcher Women’s Leadership Award Ceremony on Friday, March 11, for her efforts as a physician during the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.

The honor is awarded annually to an alumna of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy who demonstrates leadership and makes a meaningful impact in the private, public and NGO sectors, according to the Fletcher School website.

Bhadelia is currently an infectious disease physician, with a background in the field of infection control related to emerging pathogens and highly communicable infectious diseases. Bhadelia is the director of Infection Control and Medical Response at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory at Boston University, where she is also an assistant professor at the university’s School of Medicine.

During the Ebola epidemic in 2014 and 2015, Bhadelia travelled to Sierra Leone four times to treat patients and combat the crisis. When asked how she summoned the courage to fly to Sierra Leone and work as a physician during the Ebola crisis, Bhadelia replied with a quote from Hillel the Elder: “If I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?”

Read the full article ]]>Charles Dallara (F75, F86) recently spoke with Bloomberg about the European banking industry, the prospect for consolidation, and the ability for firms to return to profitability.

]]>It’s been nearly a year since President Barack Obama nominated Roberta Jacobson, F86, A19P, to be U.S. ambassador to Mexico. She’s still waiting for approval from the Senate. The delay is widely interpreted as punishment from Republican lawmakers who disapproved of the landmark negotiations, led by Jacobson, that re-established U.S. diplomatic relations with Cuba last year.

At 55, Jacobson has been Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs since 2012, and before that she was the State Department’s point person for Mexico, Canada and NAFTA. If approved, she will be the first woman to serve as ambassador to Mexico.

Jacobson recently talked with Tufts Now while visiting Tufts to see her older son, who is a freshman at the university.

Tufts Now: What drew you to work in U.S.-Latin American relations?

Roberta Jacobson: Around my sophomore year at Brown, I had decided, to my mother’s delight, that I was going to do political science instead of dance and theater, because I liked eating too much to do dance and starve myself the rest of my life. I had studied Spanish in high school and I was in college from ’78 to ’82, the period during which Latin American countries began to go from military dictatorship to democracy.

So as a laboratory for political science, it was a really interesting time in Latin America. I also became captivated by the culture and the rhythms of the music and the dance, so it all came together for me, which was odd for a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey.

The Kremlin case for relishing the United Kingdom leaving the European Union stacks itself:

"Those slippery Brits are still quite good at foreign policy and give some spine to all the other Euro-jellyfish, eg on Ukraine and sanctions.

"An EU without the UK’s ‘rule of law’ nit-picking will be a weaker model for good governance and so less attractive to other former Soviet republics. Every little helps.

"Without London sticking its nose in on strategic Russia/EU energy issues, Moscow can look to cut quiet big deals with Germany over the heads of, say, Warsaw: back to the future!"

The problem with Divide and Rule is that you have to waste time and effort with all that messy dividing. Happy days when they busily divide themselves for you. Maybe other EU member states will follow the UK’s example and the EU project unravels. Much easier to control ungrateful central European Slavs if they’re wandering around on their own.

]]>2016 Women of Distinction. She is being honored for her work in international development as President and CEO of the MasterCard Foundation, which guarantees that 50 percent of program participants are women and girls. ]]>Mr. Hummel brings more than two decades of senior management experience to United Rentals. He most recently served as chief marketing officer of Schneider Electric SE, with responsibility for the development and implementation of Schneider’s global marketing strategy. Previously, Mr. Hummel held positions as chief commercial officer and president with Unify Inc., where he was instrumental in transforming the company’s go-to-market model as a rebranding of Siemens Enterprise Communications. Earlier, he served in senior marketing positions with global software manufacturer SAP SE, and spent 13 years in sales, marketing and business development leadership roles with Oracle Corporation.

Michael Kneeland, president and chief executive officer of United Rentals, said, “We’re delighted that Chris has joined us as CMO. He’s an impactful leader who brings a strong track record of transforming go-to-market strategies for Fortune 300 companies, while strengthening ties to customers. I look forward to working closely with Chris as a key member of our senior team.”

Mr. Hummel said, “United Rentals already occupies a respected leadership position. It’s exciting to join this vibrant company and help develop and implement its innovative strategy. I look forward to creating a broader customer experience that goes beyond the industry’s traditional channels and engages United Rentals’ customers directly in a deeper conversation.”

Mr. Hummel holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Tufts.

]]>Head of Latin American Sales and Relationship Management at Manulife Asset Management. Prior to this position, she was Vice President – Head of Latin American Sales and Relationship Management at State Street Global Advisors. ]]>

A 2013 report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) shows that 51 percent of South Asia’s 1.6 billion people are directly engaged in agriculture and 42 percent of South Asia’s landmass is under agricultural operation. The fact that only 20 percent of South Asia’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is generated through farming activities would be a sentence wrenched out of context until it is elaborated as to what percentage of South Asian lives are impacted by our performance in agriculture on a daily basis.

Past and the present

The world economy has undergone revolutionary changes due to industrialisation and global integration of markets. In the world’s most advanced economies, percentage-wise, the proportion the labour force involved in agriculture is insignificant. However, strikingly, this is the sector over which multilateral trade negotiators are still nowhere close to finding a compromise and striking a deal to write global trade rules. Successive rounds of trade talks have failed to generate the expected results not merely because of the strong agriculture lobby back home but also due to the sensitivity and passion that are attached to this particular economic activity.

Given the all-encompassing and extremely intricate nature of agriculture and its impact on the global political economy, the coinage of the term “Agricultural Transformation” could not be more pertinent and time-befitting which, at the same time, demands an in-depth scientific analysis of the phenomenon and a knowledge-based and multi-stakeholder policy approach. Like many other parts of the agrarian world, South Asia’s agriculture too saw a gradual shift from traditional and labour-intensive farming to capital-intensive commercial farming from the middle of the last century. The time span can be segmented into the following three distinct phases. First, the traditional agriculture until the mid-20th century: A subsistence production system and low productivity in family-based farming activities. Second, the semi-commercial technology-led agriculture from the 1960s till the 1980s: The famous Green Revolution which led to the surpassing of all previous levels, scales and speeds of production. And third, the commercial agriculture since the 1980s: The introduction of the technological breakthroughs in all fields, such as biotechnology, ICT, production modulation and production technologies, processing and management, helped break yield barriers and attain higher production levels.

Read the full op-ed here. ]]>“Don’t let the technical skills you think you need stop you from pursuing a particular graduate program—you can pick those up along the way,” Diane Alexander advised the students in the room during a symposium and panel discussion hosted by The Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College in early February.

Alexander—a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University studying the impact of Affordable Care Act pilot programs on healthcare quality and costs—is one of five fellows from across the country to receive The Dwight D. Eisenhower/Clifford Roberts Graduate Fellowship from the Institute. The fellowship is awarded annually to students in an advanced stage of their doctoral candidacies, with a focus on candidates pursuing topics on the role of government in a free society, public service, public policy, and an improved understanding of America's role in world affairs.

In addition to Alexander, recipients included Krishna Murali from Stanford University; Simon Miles from the University of Texas at Austin; Michael Poznasky from the University of Virginia; and Andrew Taffer from Tufts University. This was the second year the fellows traveled to campus to share their research with the Gettysburg College community and speak with students, who had the opportunity to ask questions about graduate school and the fellows’ projects.

]]>The Navy’s newest futuristic weapon, the railgun, a weapons system that utilizes a combination of electric and magnetic force to fire a projectile, may skip an at-sea prototype phase and be directly outfitted on a Zumwalt-class destroyer, possibly the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, the third and final destroyer in its class, currently docked at Bath Iron Works, Maine.

The Navy has been testing railgun technology for several years now. Capable of firing a projectile 100 miles away and at the fraction of the cost of traditional missile projectiles, the railgun could potentially be a game changer in Pacific. Rear Admiral Matt Klunder told reporters “[It] will give our adversaries a huge moment of pause to go: ‘Do I even want to go engage a naval ship?’ Because you are going to lose. You could throw anything at us, frankly, and the fact that we now can shoot a number of these rounds at a very affordable cost, it’s my opinion that they don’t win.”

Traditional missile projectile systems on U.S. ships can range in costs from $500,000 to $1.5 million. The railgun projectile, weighing at roughly 23 lbs, costs $25,000, and can be fired at speeds of Mach 7 or 5,000 miles per hour. On top of the reduction in costs per projectile, the railgun limits the need to maintain a large quantity of heavy explosive tipped shells, increasing safety on board navy vessels, and reducing logistics costs and needs. Ships at sea can afford to stay out for longer periods without resupply, reducing the burden of at sea replenishment operations.

Read the full op-ed ]]>Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) have gained considerable attention in the press recently. After a hiatus, the U.S. Navy again began challenging China’s excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea in 2015. This renewed effort commenced with USS LASSEN’s operation at Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands on October 27, 2015 and most recently featured USS CURTIS D. WILBUR’S operation at Triton Island in the Paracel Islands on January 30, 2016. Both occurring in the South China Sea, the latter demonstrated U.S. commitment to challenging China’s excessive claims outside the Spratly Islands as well. While these operations can contribute to a larger deterrence strategy, we should not rely on FONOPS exclusively for strategic signaling.

The U.S. Navy has maintained a formal FONOPS program globally since 1979. Specifically, this program is designed to prevent excessive claims from becoming customary international law. A nation can argue that its excessive claims are in fact legal if it can show that other states have acquiesced. Customary international law, in effect, validates the negative. If no nation challenges the claim over time, it can be judged as internationally accepted. The FONOPS program prevents this outcome by sending ships through excessively claimed areas to demonstrate positive non-acquiescence. In the operations listed above, China requires foreign warships to obtain permission before entering “adjacent waters,” so LASSEN and CURTIS D. WILBUR sailed within 12nm of Subi Reef and Triton Island without China’s permission to demonstrate non-acquiescence.

Read the full op-ed ]]>This paper addresses the Arab Spring and Shiʿism in Kuwait. Generally, the Kuwaiti Shiʿa, who constitute 25 to 30 percent of Kuwaiti society, have been supportive of the Bahraini uprising of 2011. However, the Kuwaiti Shiʿa have opposed the Syrian revolution, and they did not support the opposition movement in Kuwait. The Shiʿa's relationship with the authorities and the opposition in the country has changed, and this paper explores this change. Sectarianism may be one reason for their double standards toward the Arab Spring, including the events in Kuwait, and this is an important issue to explore from the perspective of the Kuwaiti Shiʿa. This paper relies on many interviews with Shiʿa political and academic figureheads in Kuwait, to understand their views on the Arab revolt of 2011 and their relationship to the opposition movement in Kuwait.

]]>Chairman of Emotion Mining, a privately-held organization that focuses on capturing conscious and subconscious emotions without bias and the only cloud-based technology on the market that uncovers inner subconscious motivations that drive critical decision making. ]]>
During the course of a recent visit to London, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarifstated publicly that the fight against Daesh (ISIS) was something that could help unite the region in a common cause. Advocating a "collective move forward" (in place of a 'zero sum approach'), Zarif was adamant that all parties stood to benefit through a new paradigm and the adoption of a "positive sum perspective".

Given the current situation in the Middle East, which has never looked more convoluted in living memory, this may be an opportune moment for giving serious consideration to Zarif's offer. It could lead to a decisive outcome in the battle with Daesh which the American presidential hopeful, Donald Trump has described as "all talk and no action".

While all contending sides in the region as well as the international community are vocally united in wanting to defeat Daesh and dismantling its so-called 'Islamic State', the net result of their combined efforts have fallen seriously short of achieving this desired outcome any time soon. According to pundits, the reason why this array of different coalitions, albeit with different agendas, seems incapable of ejecting Daesh from its key strategic strongholds is almost entirely due to the absence of capable forces on the ground to complement the aerial campaign and literally finish the job. However, all the Western parties currently engaged in the aerial campaign are not interested in any activity beyond enabling their local partners on the ground to do the job for themselves. More recently, the offer to send ground troops to Syria, ostensibly to fight Daesh, by Saudi Arabia (and the UAE!), which has no combat experience apart from tribal warfare and has never fought a land war outside the Arabian peninsula since the rise of Islam in the 7th century, seems more like a frivolous prank than anything serious, bearing in mind that the Saudis are already engaged in a exhaustive and costly campaign in Yemen.

]]>Pakistan has deployed hundreds of troops to secure China’s $46 billion investment in the strategically and economically important port of Gwadar, with more expected to follow. Jafer Khan, a regional police officer in Gwadar stated, “Soon we’ll start hiring 700-800 police to be part of a separate security unit dedicated to Chinese security, and at a later stage a new security division would be formed.”

Pakistan is leaving nothing to chance to secure the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a link vital to Pakistan’s long-term prosperity, and a strategic hub for China to check Indian naval development being a mere 72 km from the rival port of Chabahar. Gwadar serves as China’s link to the Gulf, allowing China to project soft power and military strength in the region, a direct challenge to U.S. primacy in the Middle East.

These developments were underscored by a recent visit of Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, to Iran, in which he stated “The aim of this delegation’s visit is to further promote friendship, deepen cooperation and exchange views with Iran on bilateral military ties and issues of mutual concern.”

]]>
As the propriety and challenges of the momentous change are debated, I encourage a focus on citizenship and gender equality. Regarding the former, I think of George Washington’s 1775 letter to the New York legislature: “When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.” Washington offered this as assurance that he would return to civilian life after the Revolutionary War. I suggest two contemporary meanings of this poetic statement.

The first is that military leaders must view their stations as temporary, incomplete departures from civilian life. Service members are charged to approach their responsibilities on behalf of a nation, not just a branch of service, military unit, political party, or ideology. This can be daunting. Individuals and organizations operate with and develop biases and flaws; however, great leadership enabled the Army, Navy, and Air Force to recommend that women serve in infantry, special forces, and other combat positions.

The second is that the opportunities of citizenship must be available to all. To exclude women from combat roles is to deny them the opportunity to give full expression to their understanding of citizenship. It also limits their opportunity to be role models, and perhaps even tomorrow’s citizen-soldier-stateswomen par excellence.
Read the full article here.

]]>Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Alliance HealthCare Services, a leading national provider of outsourced radiology, oncology and interventional services. Prior to this, she was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Printronix. ]]>next U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. He will be leaving his position as Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. ]]>Looking through the headlines emanating from Afghanistan it would be difficult to find any message of hope or progress. The situation looks bleak, with reports stipulating that the Taliban controls more territory than at any point since it lost power in 2001. Afghan forces saw record casualties, and a recent NATO report has concluded that a majority of Afghan infantry units are combat ineffective, with only 1 out of 101 units operationally ready and 38 suffering from major issues. But not all is lost in the war-torn country. For one thing, the 2015 fighting season has provided Afghan forces with much needed lessons learned from the battlefield, lessons that are not impossible for Afghan forces to implement.

Much of Afghanistan’s record casualty numbers can be attributed to the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from a combat role last year, and the ushering in of the “train, advise, and assist” mission, aka Resolute Support. During this pivotal 2015 fighting season Afghan forces took the lead role in providing security for its country. Though Afghan forces have struggled to combat a reinvigorated Taliban, they still control all key urban population centers, including wrestling back control of Kunduz last October.

Headline grabbing advances by Taliban forces have usually been overturned by security forces, as Afghan forces have been able to regain much of the territory lost to the Taliban either immediately or within a few days, and although coalition partners have assisted, that assistance has been minimal. To put this in perspective, NATO airstrikes to assist Afghan forces in retaining the vitally important Sangin province or retaking Kunduz city could be counted on one hand, while coalition airstrikes to retake Ramadi in Iraq numbered over 600.

]]>In 2009, President Obama defended his foreign policy by insisting, “I don’t even really need George Kennan right now.” But after North Korea’s latest long-range missile launch, coming on the heels of its fourth unimpeded nuclear test, U.S. foreign policy could use a shot in the arm from the famed diplomat.

Kennan once observed, “The life of an international community can always be inclined to some extent, like a tree, by persistent pressure in a single direction over a long space of time." Over the past quarter century, U.S. policy has failed to adequately prune Pyongyang’s decision trees. The result is not a bonsai, but an overgrown weed that threatens to choke its neighbors.

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama rightly noted that the world still looks to Washington, not Beijing or Moscow, for international leadership. So when North Korea stirs up international trouble, it makes little sense for Washington to continue to turn to Beijing for solutions. It would be much better for Washington to fix its own inadequate policies towards North Korea, thereby shaping both Pyongyang’s and Beijing’s strategic landscape in ways that align with its own.

Read the full op-ed ]]>I recently received a message from a friend still living in a suburb of Aleppo. She told me that she was closing the school she had been operating (underground since the uptick in airstrikes), and was taking the children closer to the Turkish border. As I thought about her message, I was reminded how a ceasefire observed by all parties will protect children like her students, today. But only a long-term political settlement will secure the country they will hopefully still call home, when they have children of their own.

My friend's story and the fate of future generations were at the forefront of my mind as I headed to the Syria peace talks in Geneva this month.

As a member of the Syrian opposition's High Negotiations Committee who is a believer in dialogue rather than violence, it is still clear to me that the solution to Syria's crisis is political not military. Thus, after weeks of preparations, travel, and meetings--observed with renewed interest by the media--it felt terribly difficult to postpone the very talks necessary to make this political solution a reality.

Ultimately, when I departed Geneva two days after the official decision to postpone the Syria peace talks (scheduled to resume February 25), I couldn't help but reflect rather emotionally on the wave of activity that had transpired during the previous two weeks.

]]>Chief of Armenia's National Security Service. Prior to this, he was the Deputy Prosecutor General. ]]>The German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, commonly known as BAFIN, this fall relaxed requirements for opening a bank account. The new rules allow accounts to be opened with a stamped document from an appropriate German authority, such as BAFIN, along with a picture and personal information. Transitional rules are in effect until the approval of the law, expected this year. A directive in the European Union, which will begin in September 2016, will require similar access to bank accounts across the EU.

Citizens of developed countries may not appreciate the role a bank account plays in providing access to basic financial services. A bank account is more than a place to secure our money – in nearly every country, it provides high social and economic value. When a bank says we are trustworthy, even for a simple bank account, doors open for many services we take for granted such as access to electronic payments, basic utilities, housing contracts, education or small business loans. This works because banks use a vetting process to ensure they know exactly who we are, often referencing a nationally issued document such as a passport or driver’s license. For us, the account becomes another form of identity. For the banks, it ensures the correct people have access to funds. With a passport and a bank account, the world is our oyster, an entrée into other services and for the bank, it is an entrée into cross-selling and more profits as they learn more about us.

However, many refugees (we focus here on refugees, not routine migrants) arrive in Germany without passports or other forms of identity. The Germans have found a work-around to provide basic identification, and thus bank accounts for this previously excluded population. Estimates are that more than 500,000 people in Germany do not have access to a bank account. In contrast, many countries do not provide such simplified access to accounts. Government regulations require intensive background checks and proof of identity. Their interest is to avoid the possibility of money laundering and financial crime.

]]>Foreign pressure on Poland’s new government is growing — and for good reason. Since taking power in November, the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), which formed Poland’s first single-party government since 1989, has ridden roughshod over the institutions of this still-young democracy. PiS has enacted laws that changed parliamentary rules, undermined the independence of the Constitutional Tribunal, strengthened the government’s grip over public broadcasting (which the government rebranded “national media”), and expanded Internet and digital surveillance.

The foreign media wasted no time in sounding the alarm, warning of Poland’s “ruinous path” and calling for the country’s foreign allies to press its government to change course. And they have begun to respond. In early January, the EU Commission decided — for the first time ever — to launch a procedure to monitor the Polish government’s commitment to rule of law. The country’s relationship with Germany is in free-fall. During a recent visit, Daniel Fried, former U.S. ambassador to Poland, warned Warsaw against further undermining the rule of law.

But what of ordinary Poles? After all, this is the country that gave birth to one of the twentieth century’s most consequential anti-authoritarian movements: the Solidarity trade union that peacefully challenged — and eventually brought down — the communist system. Since then, Poland has regained its rightful place in the center of a prosperous and democratic Europe. Surely its people won’t let these achievements go to waste?

]]>Defense Secretary Ash Carter's order that all ground-combat jobs, including special-operations billets, be opened to women, has provoked strong reactions on both sides of the debate.

The reactions have been mixed, with many service members fearing standards will be watered down to accommodate women, while others cheered when the first women completed the Army's grueling Ranger School. The Marine Corps even pushed a study claiming that all-male teams outperformed mixed-gender units in combat functions, though some have claimed this study to be flawed.

What has largely been absent from this debate, though, are the reasons behind the Pentagon’s push to create a gender-neutral military and incorporate women into combat roles. At face value, gender equality in the military certainly appeals to the president’s liberal base. However, there is a more important point being glossed over: the U.S. and the world at large are entering a paradigm shift in the way wars will be fought in the future.

Paradigm shifts in military operations have occurred numerous times throughout history, forcing commanders to change and adapt organizational structures and tactics.

On the morning of Jan. 14, a series of explosions and gunfire rocked the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, killing eight people and injuring dozens. The attacks, which were claimed by affiliates of the self-described Islamic State, have led the government of President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, to ramp up counterterrorism efforts across Indonesia.

While the Jakarta attacks made headlines all over the world, Indonesian authorities and experts have long noted the rising terrorism threat in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Several groups have been operating in the country, including one based in central Java with ties to the Islamic State and another in the port of Poso, known as the Mujahidin of Eastern Indonesia or the Mujahidin Indonesia Timur (MIT), which is led by Santoso, the country’s most wanted terrorist. Indonesia has been trying to contain the growing threat from these groups, with several plots successfully foiled at home in 2015 and agreements reached with key countries to strengthen intelligence-sharing. Indeed, in December, with the help of the United States, Singapore and Australia, authorities arrested a dozen men across Java suspected of planning attacks over the holidays.

But the violence in Jakarta last month has jolted Indonesia into taking much tougher measures on counterterrorism. First, authorities have stepped up an already ongoing crackdown on militants in the country. Security forces moved swiftly after the attacks with a string of arrests in Java and Kalimantan. They also blocked websites expressing support for the Jakarta attacks.

]]>Career diplomat Grigor Hovhannisyan, Armenia’s newly appointed ambassador to the United States, presented his credentials to President Barack Obama on Thursday, January 28.

Prior to his Washington appointment, Hovhannisyan had served as Armenia’s ambassador to Mexico, Costa Rica and as the country’s consul general in Los Angeles.

Hovhannisyan was born in Yerevan in 1971. After completing his studies at the Yerevan State University, Department of Oriental Studies specializing in Arab Studies in 1992, he moved on to study Middle East Politics at the Haigazian University in Lebanon in 1992-1993 and received his MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston, MA in 2001.

Before a career in the diplomatic service of the Republic of Armenia, Hovhannisyan held a number of positions in UN programs and specialized agencies, working in Africa and the Middle East.

He was a UNESCO Team Leader and emergency Planner, Middle East Peace Process in Jerusalem and UN Field Coordinator in Palestinian territories, West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Ramallah and Gaza City).

]]>On Feb. 4, President Barack Obama will host Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the White House to discuss a peace deal that will end the decades-long insurgency between the central government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The meeting will commemorate Plan Colombia, a U.S. diplomatic and military initiative conceived under the Clinton administration. Since 2000, Plan Columbia has brought nearly $10 billion in assistance to Colombia’s government and security forces.

The recent spate of violence tearing across Afghanistan, record civilian casualties, and a fledgling security force struggling to maintain the status quo with the Taliban would seem like an unlikely candidate for comparison with Colombia. Aside from the two countries’ geographic and cultural differences, Colombia is experiencing renewed economic growth and its largest reduction in violence in the last three decades. However, just a decade ago, Colombia had the highest murder rate in the world. It also suffered from a series of targeted bombings and killings, and witnessed nearly 3000 kidnappings in 2000.

Afghanistan’s insurgency is evolving from an ideological battle seeking to unite Afghans under a religious banner to that of competing criminal organizations fighting over valuable resources and opium smuggling routes — turf wars that Colombia’s drug gangs are familiar with.

]]>Near the small town of Gashora in Rwanda, about 20km north of the border with Burundi, hundreds of children and their mothers sit outside tents (or “hangers”) branded with the UNHCR logo. Young boys play football in worn clothing as they pass the time, while malnourished babies lie in a row awaiting treatment from a special medical tent.

Since April 2015, at least 240,000 people have fled Burundi as it has descended into a violent political crisis. A large proportion of these refugees have journeyed north into neighbouring Rwanda, and tens of thousands have ended up here at Gashora Reception Centre before being transferred for more permanent stay at Mahama Refugee Camp. Many have been separated from their loved ones back in Burundi, who may or may not still be alive, and each has his or her own unique story of loss, suffering, and violence.

According to official records, the camp received around 17,000 people in April and another 19,000 over the subsequent fourth months before numbers dropped to hundreds per month. Approximately 60% of these are under 18.

However, the total number of refugees to this area is likely to be significantly higher. Burundians are only taken to Gashora if they indicate at the border office that they are fleeing for political reasons. But with many are afraid to admit being refugees, large numbers say they are crossing into Rwanda for economic motivations or to visit family. Many of these try to assimilate in the nearby town of Nyanza.

]]>he will be running for Massachusetts State Senate. He is currently the executive director of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. ]]>was elected President of the African Wildlife Foundation in Uganda. He plans to advance a clear policy agenda for wildlife as part of Africa's future. Previously, he was the Chief of Party for the USAID/Uganda Biodiversity Program. ]]>At the height of combat missions in Afghanistan, the U.S. military occupied nearly 825 military outposts throughout the war-ravaged region. That number now stands at roughly 20. The outposts served an extensive intelligence-gathering network, using surveillance balloons and wide-range signals intelligence collection operations. The rapid drawdown of these facilities following the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from the region created a black hole of information, with Afghan forces struggling to fill the gap.

Afghan forces require a robust intelligence collection and targeting capability if they want to turn back the tide of a reinvigorated Taliban insurgency, which has occupied more territory since its collapse following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Currently, Afghanistan relies on a fledgling air force struggling to keep aircraft in the skies and lacking any precision strike capability to target Taliban and ISIS commanders.

Aging Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, provided by Russia and India, and the MD-530, a two-man light attack helicopter similar to the U.S. Kiowa Warrior, comprise Afghanistan’s air force. The nation lacks a dedicated fixed-wing, light attack aircraft capable of providing close air support to ground forces and delivering precision strike GPS-guided munitions—until the recent delivery of the A-29 Super Tucano.

Resolute Support Mission commander Gen. John F. Campbell, USA, described the A-29 as a potential “game changer” for Afghan forces. It is slated to serve as a dedicated close air support platform for the Afghan forces struggling to hold back the Taliban.

Read the full op-ed ]]>At the headquarters of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co., most of the offices and meeting rooms are walled in plate glass. Visitors escorted to the conference room outside Mahmood Al Kooheji's fourth-floor office can observe the sovereign wealth fund's chief executive at work and enjoy the view of the Manama skyline and Gulf waters. For Al Kooheji, the openness of the office is more than a matter of aesthetics. It's a symbol of transparency--a quality he deems vital for managing the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.

“The thing about transparency is people fear it,” Al Kooheji, who has spent more than two decades in the Bahraini government, tells Institutional Investor. “But once you get used to it, you don’t want it to go away.”

Tasked with managing the kingdom’s non–oil and gas investments, Mumtalakat — Arabic for “assets” — seeks to turn around state-owned enterprises by promoting private sector–style transparency and sound corporate governance. The $11.2 billion fund holds stakes in 38 enterprises, including many of the country’s largest employers, with a total value of about $8 billion. It has undertaken major restructurings at several of these companies, including two of the most critical: Aluminum Bahrain and Gulf Air. “Our mission is very simple: just run our portfolio commercially,” Al Kooheji says in a calm, fatherly tone befitting the protector of the nation’s most strategic assets.

Mumtalakat is also beginning to flex its muscles as a portfolio investor, taking significant minority stakes in three foreign companies over the past two years in a bid to diversify its holdings and provide knock-on benefits to the Bahraini economy. The three deals, made in partnership with seasoned private equity investors, had a total value of about $1 billion; Mumtalakat hasn’t disclosed its stake in the deals. Nevertheless, Al Kooheji says he hopes to be involved in roughly $1 billion worth of deals a year going forward. The fund plans to expand its international portfolio as part of a broad government program to develop the economy over the next 15 years. “To a certain degree, we need to have a bigger impact in what we do relative to other sovereign wealth funds that are gigantic,” says Zulfe Ali, the fund’s chief investment officer...

The sovereign fund has more in common with development funds such as Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. than with giant sovereign portfolio investors like the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

“Like a young Temasek in its first decade of existence, Mumtalakat’s mandate is to play the role of a state entrepreneur, to make investments in related companies and infrastructure to help build the domestic economy — a role that Bahrain’s nascent private sector is unable to undertake,” says Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi, a research fellow at Tufts University and author of an academic case study of the fund. Both entities tap global bond markets for financing and were created to turn around state-run businesses and attract investment to diversify their domestic economies, he adds.

]]>The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) announced today it has elected Ugandan native Kaddu Kiwe Sebunya to serve as its new President. Sebunya will focus on advancing a clear policy agenda for wildlife as part of Africa’s future, ensuring the continent’s blueprint for development and growth includes space and protections for Africa’s natural heritage.

“I am excited to be stepping into the role of president at a time when Africa’s economies are surging, and when important decisions are being made as to how Africa should manage its natural resources responsibly and with accountability,” said Sebunya. “The continent is undergoing a profound change, and we must help to guide this change so it benefits Africa’s people and wildlife.”

Sebunya began his career serving as a project manager with WaterAid and as a relief program officer with Oxfam UK. Beginning with his post as the Associate Director for the United States Peace Corps in Uganda, Sebunya’s career began to focus more on conservation. He later served as a country program coordinator with the World Conservation Union—now the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN—and as a senior policy and planning advisor for Conservation International.

In 2006, Sebunya moved to Washington, DC and became AWF’s Director of Programs. He developed and implemented a legislative program to engage U.S. lawmakers on issues affecting conservation and development in Africa. In 2013, he became Chief of Party for the USAID/Uganda Biodiversity Program before transitioning to AWF’s president.

Sebunya received his Bachelor’s degree in Social and Political Science from Uganda’s Makerere University and a Masters of Science degree in Sustainable Resource Management and Policy from London’s Imperial College. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in Law, Policy and Diplomacy from Tufts University’s The Fletcher School.

]]>The Paris attacks by radical Islamists associated with the so-called Islamic State in November 2015, took place in the aftermath of more than a decade of conflict and confrontation since 9/11.

Since then, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq with the aim of promoting democratic values in the Middle East, has been nothing but an utter disaster. The tragedy in Paris may have finally brought an end to all such efforts.

The Iraq war cost the US more than $2 trillion and many thousands of lives were lost. The conflict in the region has now culminated in the largest flow of migration since World War II, and it is clear that the conceptual framework behind such actions had been highly flawed.

Subsequent efforts by the Obama presidency to distance the US and some of its allies from their original commitments to nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan by withdrawing the bulk of American and allied troops from those countries, have also backfired.

The destruction of the pre-existing equilibrium in places like Iraq, Syria and Libya has now lead to unprecedented levels of regional tension and insecurity precipitated by revived Shia-Sunni tensions and exacerbated by the false promises of the Arab Spring. As a result, the general stability of the region and the existing balance within its various diverse societies have been gratuitously destroyed by unrealistic expectations of imposing Western beliefs in societies where the majority of the general population had no wish to part with their own values and traditions.

]]>The Paris attacks by radical Islamists associated with the so-called Islamic State in November 2015, took place in the aftermath of more than a decade of conflict and confrontation since 9/11.

Since then, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq with the aim of promoting democratic values in the Middle East, has been nothing but an utter disaster. The tragedy in Paris may have finally brought an end to all such efforts.

Subsequent efforts by the Obama presidency to distance the US and some of its allies from their original commitments to nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan by withdrawing the bulk of American and allied troops from those countries, have also backfired.

The destruction of the pre-existing equilibrium in places like Iraq, Syria and Libya has now lead to unprecedented levels of regional tension and insecurity precipitated by revived Shia-Sunni tensions and exacerbated by the false promises of the Arab Spring. As a result, the general stability of the region and the existing balance within its various diverse societies have been gratuitously destroyed by unrealistic expectations of imposing Western beliefs in societies where the majority of the general population had no wish to part with their own values and traditions.

]]>The so-called Islamic State (ISIS) lost approximately 14 percent of its territory in 2015, leading to hope that it might be possible to contain the group until it collapses under the strain of administering a state. That is an attractive idea. If correct, it would save the international community from a more robust, and therefore more perilous, intervention.

ISIS is not, however, the first Islamist terrorist group to create a proto-state in the modern era. The Somali terrorist organization al Shabab conquered and administered territory long before ISIS did. Studying al Shabab’s experience provides clues for ISIS’ possible trajectory, and little comfort that the group can be contained until it withers away.

In early 2007, al Shabab rose from the ashes of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a coalition of Islamist groups that had conquered most of southern Somalia. Its success provoked neighboring Ethiopia to invade and scatter the group. But al Shabab, previously only a minor partner in the ICU, waged a ferocious counterinsurgency that eventually drove the Ethiopians from the country.

The anti-Ethiopian campaign hypercharged al Shabab. Fighters—including scores of Americans and other foreigners—flocked to its banner, drawn by the group’s mix of nationalist and Islamist appeals. Al Shabab eventually cornered the internationally backed federal government, along with its protector, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), in a sliver of the capital, Mogadishu. At its zenith, al Shabab controlled about one-third of Somalia, or approximately 81,000 square miles.

Read the full op-ed ]]>As we settle into 2016, it might appear as though the defining story of the previous year was the rise and stretching reach of extremist violence. A string of deadly terrorist attacks in Beirut, Paris, San Bernardino, the Malian capital Bamako, and Jakarta left the impression that the large-scale chaos of the Islamic State has pollinated smaller pockets of havoc the world over. And though it’s fair to think that — as these are the stories that dominated headlines for months — that isn’t the whole story. The flurry surrounding this horrific violence has obscured an alternative narrative: that nonviolent citizen movements across the world scored sweeping and transformative victories in 2015. And, as protests are on the rise, these movements could play an increasingly important role in cutting the roots of violent extremism.

In Iraq last summer, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was forced to launch a corruption probe and overhaul the government after unprecedented, sustained protests over electricity cuts and shoddy service delivery by thousands of citizens in many parts of Iraq — demonstrations that, at first glance, had little to do with the Islamic State’s terrorizing of the country’s north. In September, a broad-based movement in Guatemala, backed by a United Nations anti-corruption commission, forced a kleptocratic president and his entourage from power without bloodshed. In these cases, popular movements used nonviolent tactics of disruption — including strikes, boycotts, and demonstrations — to shake up the status quo and challenge symbols of corruption and oppression.

It is remarkable that people power took root in countries that have endured years — even decades — of violent conflict. The challenge for 2016 will be to build on these nonviolent successes and help them lead to institutional changes. The question is: How many of these protest movements can translate upheaval into real, sustainable peace? To increase their chances, they’re going to need more help from an international donor community that has historically shied away from the tumult of resistance movements.

]]>Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Masud Bin Momen, F90, spoke at the United Nations to highlight Bangladesh's commitment to implement the sustainable development goals through women's leadership and active participation.

]]>

For Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, what was traumatic about being on the front lines of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone last year wasn’t just being suited up in biohazard suits trying to contain a terrifying incurable disease.

It was witnessing the sacrifices of the health care workers and the nurses, mainly women, who risked personal safety, financial ruin, familial strife and physical exhaustion to help battle the disease.

“The stories you hear about, the kind of things the health care workers have gone through are just unbelievable,” she said. “So many went through trauma of seeing their own friends die in their own units. For them to be there, it’s an immense part of personal bravery.”

Bhadelia, who holds three degrees from Tufts, including a MALD from The Fletcher School, has made the study of and the fight against dangerous pathogens her life’s work. This work has propelled her to a job as an infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center and to prominence as director of infection control at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory.

Now she is adding further to her life’s work: advocating for and supporting the local health care workers who were so instrumental in helping to contain the outbreak last year and will be instrumental in future epidemics.

For this, and for being at the vanguard of the critical international effort to build better responses to disease outbreaks, Bhadelia has been named the winner of the third annual Fletcher Women's Leadership Award.

The award was established in 2014 by the Fletcher Board of Advisors and the School’s executive leadership to honor outstanding female graduates who are making a meaningful impact in the world in the private, public and NGO sectors.

“Nahid has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and selfless commitment—not to mention enormous courage—in pursuing her work,” said Leslie Puth, MALD ’11, chair of the FWLA committee. “She developed a unique mix of knowledge and skills while earning degrees at Fletcher and at Tufts. This has endowed her with a perspective on health issues that is both broad and deep, exemplified by her work with patients and health care workers in Sierra Leone during the recent Ebola crisis.”

Bhadelia, who calls the Boston-area town of Brookline home, ended up as an undergraduate at Tufts in 1995. Armed with the bachelor’s degree in biology in 1999, she turned her attentions to a medical degree at Tufts School of Medicine.

At the same time, she enrolled at Fletcher, a decision that she calls a “much less traveled road” where public health work is concerned.

“The reason I decided on Fletcher was because I truly felt that a lot of the elements that drive the progression of epidemics— of outbreaks becoming epidemics, of outbreaks emerging in the first place— are so entrenched in things like climate change, environmental justice, economic development,” she said. “All of these things are so closely tied.”

While at Fletcher, she worked with former professors Adil Najam, who was her thesis advisor, and Peter Uvin, then the founding director of the Institute of Human Security, as well as Steven Block, professor of international economics and director of the Program on International Development who currently serves as academic dean.

She wrote her master’s thesis on how HIV/AIDS affected many African countries’ economic productivity, “taking the human security perspective and trying to make a practical version of it, trying to suggest proper intervention.”

As an example of the way she’s been able to meld her medical background with her Fletcher research, Bhadelia pointed to one of the epicenters of the West Africa epidemic, in Guinea, where there had been vast deforestation. People were being pushed into greater interactions with animal populations, where the risk for exposure to foreign pathogens increases, she said.

“What Fletcher gave me was exactly that: the background to understand the tapestry that sets up the scene for pathogens to emerge,” she said.

That laid the groundwork for the job she ended up getting in 2011, as director of infectious disease at the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory. The facility is a “biosafety hazard level 4” laboratory, one of six around the United States, funded by the federal government, to help deal with exceedingly dangerous diseases like Ebola.

She was hired, she said, specifically because of her background in both infectious control and human security.

It is “an amazing, incredible, perfect position that actually combines all my skills from Fletcher with all my medical training,” Bhadelia said.

In August 2014, with the Ebola outbreak snowballing through West Africa and prompting a global intervention, Bhadelia traveled to Sierra Leone to serve on a World Health Organization team treating patients at a government hospital's Ebola treatment unit in Kenema, some four hours east of the capital Freetown.

She spent 12 days in and out of Ebola wards, garbed in high-tech biohazard safety suits and surrounded by the misery of an awful disease and the bravery of workers—both local and foreigners. She went back three more time in 2014 and 2015, working with the Boston-based NGO, Partners in Health, to help provide guidance to health care workers on proper techniques to protect themselves from contamination.

During her visits, Bhadelia said she realized that amid the massive outpouring of aid and equipment and money, it was the local health care workers who were the bulwark against complete catastrophe. And the health care workers, especially nurses, were overwhelmingly women as were, she said, the bulk of the people who were infected.

“Ebola is a disease of caretakers. You get it because you’re taking care of someone who’s sick. You get it because you’ve had close contact with bodily fluids. And the majority of caretakers were women,” she said.

Many nurses watched first-hand as their friends and relatives and acquaintance died horrible deaths. Many found their meager salaries halted as the disease overwhelmed governments. Many found themselves kicked out of their own houses by relatives fearful of being infected.

One veteran nurse who worked in an Ebola treatment ward and who was pregnant, Bhadelia said, traveled to Freetown, trying to get her salary so she could prepare for her baby’s birth. Having learned that she was an Ebola nurse, officials promptly seized her, and took her to an isolation ward—in an ambulance that was already carrying an Ebola positive patient.

With those experiences in mind, Bhadelia resolved to do something else to contribute: she set up a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign to get money to the local health care workers who continued to do their jobs even as they weren’t getting their salaries. The goal of the campaign was to serve as an advocacy tool to draw attention to the issue and to raise money for those affected.

By the beginning of December 2015, she had raised over $41,000 through individual donations from people around the United States. Using a mobile payment service, Splash Cash, utilized by the United Nations Development Program to get the cash directly to workers, she then uses Skype to notify the workers to make sure the money arrives and to find out how it’s being used.

Some use the money to pay rent. Others move their families to cleaner or safer surroundings. An ambulance driver used his funds to buy a motorcycle to earn money as a taxi driver. Another took more nursing courses to improve her training and qualifications.

“They are just flabbergasted. They’re like ‘What do you mean? People are giving us money out of nowhere? We’re suffering. We’re at the end of the line. What kind of people are these who would send money to strangers?’” Bhadelia said. “I gain more out of this than I think anybody else does because it’s such an amazing feeling to put money exactly where it is needed.”

She also laughs at how the idea of just giving people money runs counter to the kind of development research and thinking that she learned at Fletcher.

“This was not a ‘systems solution,’” she said. Most of the workers want to find employment and just need something to hold them over.

“You are talking about people who are so responsible and felt such an amazing sense of commitment that they stayed in such life-threatening situations,” she said. “Giving someone the agency to know how to spend their own money is actually the greatest amount of respect you can give someone.

“So I would say to all my Fletcher cohorts: think twice again, maybe cash payments are not such a bad thing in the right situation,” she said, laughing.

]]>“I left India more convinced than ever before that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.” – “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.,” edited by Clayborne Carson

Since 2011, the world has been a deeply contentious place. Although armed insurgencies rage across the Middle East, the Sahel and Southern Asia, violent civil conflicts are no longer the primary way that people seek to redress their grievances. Instead, from Tunis to Tahrir Square, from Zuccotti Park to Ferguson, from Burkina Faso to Hong Kong, movements worldwide have drawn on the lessons of Gandhi, King and everyday activists at home and abroad to push for change.

Gandhi’s and King’s emphases on nonviolent resistance — in which unarmed people use a coordinated set of strikes, protests, boycotts or other actions to confront an opponent — are not without critics. Some critiques are based on a misunderstanding about what civil resistance is, while others doubt the ability of unarmed and suppressed people to organize and challenge a powerful opponent. With each new movement comes the same set of challenges, including questions about the efficacy of nonviolent action in the face of entrenched power and systemic oppression. In 2011, we published a book exploring these questions and found unexpectedly that campaigns of nonviolent resistance had succeeded more than twice as often as their violent counterparts when seeking to remove incumbent national leaders or gain territorial independence.

Read the full op-ed ]]>The rise of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq further complicates the seemingly contradictory relationships among Hamas and Salafi-jihadi groups in the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. While the historically tense and often openly antagonistic relationship between Hamas and Gaza-based Salafi-jihadi groups is well known, several Israeli news articles over the past month have claimed that Hamas is in fact working with IS-linked factions in Sinai to bring weapons into Gaza and carry out attacks against Egyptian security forces. These reports are largely an over-simplification of the situation, which is contextualized by the political and economic realities in the strip.

After Hamas took over the strip in 2007, Gaza faced international isolation and dire restrictions on the inflow and outflow of goods and people. Gaza’s relationship with neighboring Egyptian Sinai deepened as the latter became its only access to the outside world. The informal tunnel economy soon became essential to keep the strip and its economy afloat, while providing the Hamas government “tax” revenue and the group’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, a channel for both arms and cash.

The tunnels also established extensive economic relations along the Sinai–Gaza border. Egypt’s impoverished North Sinai governorate became a boomtown for traders in everything from consumer goods to medical supplies, construction materials, and fuel. Meanwhile, Bedouin smugglers and criminal arms dealers collaborated to send increasingly sophisticated weapons to Hamas—key militant leaders in Sinai, whatever ideology they claim to support, have financial interest in the perpetuation of this underground economy.

Alumna and former translator for four Iranian presidents, Banafsheh Keynoush, speaks with Eric Shawn of FOX News on her new book: Saudia Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes?

]]>I am not surprised that Tehran has been somewhat paralysed over Riyadh’s decision to break off ties after an Iranian mob attacked the Saudi embassy following the execution of the leading Saudi Shia cleric, Nimr Baghir al-Nimr, on 2 January. Since President Hassan Rouhani assumed office in August 2013, he has failed to formulate responses to Saudi policies challenging Iran, so prompting criticism from hardliners that his lack of leadership fans Riyadh’s intransigence.

The failure is clear in statements issued by Rouhani’s aides since Riyadh severed ties and other Gulf Arab states downgraded relations. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, has spent the better half of his time talking to western counterparts rather than trying with Iran’s Arab neighbours to find a way to reduce tensions with Riyadh.

Iran expected mass western condemnation of the Saudis’ execution of Nimr. Only when this failed to materialise did Tehran’s UN ambassador, Gholam Ali Khoshroo, express regret over the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran.

Iran’s belated letter to the UN Security Council, saying 40 people had been arrested for the embassy attacks, came only once Saudi Arabia had already filed a complaint and the council’s 15 members had condemned Iran - so putting Tehran at odds with the international community as it tries to end the controversy over its nuclear programme.

]]>interviewed on NPR to discuss the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. He discusses the context behind their deteriorating relationship and what we can expect to happen from here. ]]>The Economic Times recently interviewed Paul Schulte, F88, about whether 2016 will be a good year for global markets, as well as about oil prices and China's slowdown.

]]>Vasilis Polemitis is the new Cyprus Ambassador (designate) to the UAE. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Pace University, New York, and graduate degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Georgetown University. He has also completed a high-level course of the European Security and Defence College.

He shares his thoughts in an interview with Khaleej Times. Excerpts:

Cyprus and the UAE

The UAE and Cyprus share an excellent bilateral relationship based on respect and appreciation of each other's history, culture and progress in their respective regions. The Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean are both strategic segments of the same geopolitical arch that, throughout human history, facilitates the flow of ideas and commerce between the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Of course, in modern times, the importance of this conduit manifests itself across every sector of human activity.

It is therefore a privilege to assume the post of the Ambassador of Cyprus (designate) to the UAE at this juncture, and I aim to contribute to the best of my ability, to strengthen this relationship. As per my government's instructions, I am looking forward to widening our bilateral affairs agenda for the mutual benefit of the people of the UAE and Cyprus.

But Washington must do more than just punish Russia. It must bolster Ukrainians as they struggle to build a new, reform-minded government while continuing to fight to maintain their country’s territorial integrity.

As winter sets in, the continuing war in Ukraine’s east has devolved into an economic siege as Russia leverages gas supplies, coal shipments and debt repayment to attempt to extract concessions from a Ukrainian government that is still battling Russian proxies violating the Minsk II cease-fire. With Ukraine’s economic output having shrunk by a quarter, the currency sharply devalued and a population fearful of an uncertain future, Ukraine is teetering on the brink.

]]>The conflict in Afghanistan is entering a new, even more chaotic chapter. On Monday, the six U.S. service members were killed in an apparent suicide attack in Bagram province. Meanwhile, the Islamic State has a growing presence in the country. And a dangerous power struggle has emerged within the Taliban.

Early this month, rumors of the demise of the Taliban Supreme Leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, sent shockwaves through the region. Mansour was supposedly injured in a shooting between rival factions of Taliban at a meeting in Quetta, Pakistan, dampening the prospect of peace talks between the central government in Kabul and the Taliban.

A supposed audio message from Mansour was distributed days later, an attempt to allay concerns among Taliban supporters of Mansour. But the rumor of his death or injury continues to precipitate among key members of the Afghan government, including chief executive Abdullah Abdullah, who on December 7, reiterated that the Taliban leader was indeed injured in a shootout.

Whatever the truth, the Taliban is becoming more fractured, which could lead it to become more violent and unstable—right as the Obama administration is trying to adjust its course in the planned withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

]]>Across Russia, from St. Petersburg in the north to Volgograd in the south, truckers are on strike. They’re angered by a new road tax that they say is rooted in corruption and will bankrupt them. And so, some 200 long-haul drivers have disrupted roads for over two weeks and have vowed to take their motorized protest to Moscow unless the Russian government removes the tax, fires the transport minister, and fines the oligarch Arkady Rotenberg and his son, whose company was selected to collect the new fees.

In the region and beyond, similar movements that were catalyzed by grievances about corruption and involved diverse groups of protesters, including young people, professionals, and blue-collar workers, have toppled other regimes, including that of Viktor Yanukovych in next-door Ukraine. In his increasingly authoritarian rule, Russian President Vladimir Putin has often denounced such revolts, presumably fearing the same fate. Now he must be especially worried. Past protests in Russia have typically been confined to Moscow and attracted mostly liberal elites, so dissent from a blue-collar constituency hailing from the heartland can’t be good news.

Although there’s a chance that this nonviolent civil resistance might catalyze broader action, whether it will produce a democratic breakthrough depends on the desire and ability of the truckers—and the others now joining them—to diversify their support base, tap into economic and ethnic grievances nationwide, and organize.

The Russian truckers’ resistance reveals growing unhappiness among ordinary Russians. Although the drivers insist that their protests are strictly over economic issues and that many of them support Putin, in reality, tax policies, inflation, and corruption are highly political issues. The Russian economy is ailing: oil prices are in steady decline, inflation is up 15 percent, the economy is expected to contract by almost four percent in 2015, and average real incomes are set to lose an additional five percent this year. U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Russia following its annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine have hobbled the banking, energy, and arms sectors and look set to be renewed. Meanwhile, Russia is now actively involved in two wars—in Ukraine and in Syria—a further drain on the national treasury.

]]>Emotion Mining Company. Jha has 30 years of experience in working to transform small companies into big players across industries. ]]>Board of Directors. Richstone will serve as the Chair of the Audit Committee and will sit on the Compensation and Governance Committees. ]]>Braverman Emergency Medical Service Award from the PATH Foundation. Helis is currently the superintendent of the US Merchant Marine Academy and was presented the award by former Governor David Patterson and Eric Braverman. ]]>The question is: How? Given the numbers, it may seem an overwhelming task to imagine a strategy that could thwart extremist ideology’s cancerous spread and appeal. Having spoken with thousands of Muslim millennials in 80 countries, I’ve seen firsthand the impact global extremism is having. But I’ve also come away convinced that viable solutions do exist.

On the one hand, a winning approach requires strong government leadership, such as that provided by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson (I serve on his Homeland Security Advisory Council and cochair the countering violent extremism subcommittee). Yet there is another side to it. Recruitment depends on one-to-one engagement. For this reason, inoculation of millennials against extremism must begin at the local level, outside of government. Each community must work to protect its kids from being targeted and seduced by online predators. This includes philanthropists and private companies.

Younger philanthropists are now embracing mission-based causes, not traditional organizations, in their giving. With more innovative investment from philanthropists, combined with know-how from academia, medical sciences, communications, and information technology, we could make progress countering extremism.

What if Boston mustered its diverse resources to build a Countering Extremism Laboratory? This laboratory would galvanize youth to speak out against extremism, allowing them access to expertise from many Boston-area individuals, educational institutions, mental health experts, and private companies. Inviting youth from public and elite universities alike, the laboratory would give them a venue for pursuing their own ideas, for reaching out and inspiring their peers. Participants would produce online campaigns, apps, online platforms, online youth conference series, and other media and content creation projects. No matter the proposed idea, the lab would bring its resources to bear, providing a guided process alongside tech assistance, entrepreneurial expertise, and design-thinking skills. Ultimately, the lab would cultivate ideas and programs that are far better suited to build resilience with their millennial peers.

]]>The October 31 crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 in Egypt has focused global attention on the threat posed by the Islamic State’s branch in the Sinai Peninsula, which claimed responsibility. Wilayat Sinai emerged only recently, formally pledging bay`a (allegiance) to the Islamic State on November 10, 2014. Islamist militancy based in the Sinai Peninsula, however, has a long history.

In 2004, Tawhid wal Jihad, a predecessor group to Wilayat Sinai, targeted tourists with bombings in the South Sinai resort towns of Taba and Nuweiba. One of the motivations appears to have been pay back for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. President Hosni Mubarak’s regime clamped down harshly on the militancy in the Sinai, where tourism is a major economic driver. But the perceived impunity and abuses by the Interior Ministry during that campaign were part of the recipe that resulted in the 2011 uprising. In the aftermath there has been a post-revolutionary consolidation in the Sinai by a new generation of Islamist militants, who are again turning their sights on tourists and other international interests.

Wilayat Sinai’s initial statement made no mention of Egypt or of Moscow’s policies toward that country. Instead, the attack was claimed solely as retaliation for Russian military strikes in Syria, and the group threatened that Russian civilians would not be safe anywhere as long as Russia continued its military campaign in support of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and against the Islamic State. The mounting evidence of a terrorist plot behind the Metrojet crash shows that Wilayat Sinai is serious in its threats to take on the Islamic State’s enemies.

Read the full op-ed ]]>It’s being described as historical, unprecedented and dramatic. And with 195 nations signed on to a single agreement, it’s hard not to ascribe a breakthrough status to the climate change agreement finalized in Paris this weekend.

Among its key achievements are that countries have agreed to pursue efforts that would keep global temperatures no more than two degrees Celsius above temperatures in pre-industrial times — the most ambitious target ever mentioned in an agreement. Other major developments include a loss-and-damage clause that would allow vulnerable countries to seek compensation for losses directly linked climate change and balancing out carbon emissions with so-called carbon sinks like trees and oceans.

While many scientists and world leaders have been positive about the deal — United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called it “a truly universal agreement on climate change” — others say it doesn’t go far enough.

William Moomaw, professor emeritus of International Environmental Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, joins Here & Now host Eric Westervelt to discuss the agreement.

]]>The Daily Beast recently reviewed Tim Judah's, F86, new book In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine. The article states that "It is a testament to Judah’s exceptional skill as a reporter and a thinker that he is able to depict both the reality of wartime with such intense immediacy and simultaneously analyze the wider issues that have made this war so unique; and it is what makes this the best book to have emerged from Ukraine’s continuing crisis with Russia." ]]>Professor Emeritus William Moomaw joins Up All Night on BBC to discuss the divisions that have emerged between the developed and the developing world after the Paris climate agreement.